Carleton, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carleton, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Carleton lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Carleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carleton — the short answer
Carleton, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 634 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 634 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Carleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carleton's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carleton
Each reading below is measured for Carleton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarleton runs about 210 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCarleton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Carleton is in
Carleton sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carleton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Carleton
Every plant below cleared Carleton's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carleton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Carleton
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Carleton, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carleton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carleton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SATURN INDUSTRIAL PAINTING INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- C.j. Reoser & Sons, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CSX TRANSPORTATION INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- FCX PERFORMANCE INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- Kahlbaum Brothers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CARLETON COLLISIONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MAC'S CONVENIENCE STORES LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Circle K 6213Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Chesapeake & Ohio RailwayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AUTOZONEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- West Side CycleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Speedway #8725Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carleton's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Carleton.
Total Sites
688
within ~10 miles of Carleton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carleton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carleton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carleton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carleton — Superfund (12 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Carleton
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carleton average
Your land is one point inside Carleton
Everything above resolves to Carleton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Carleton Average
Carleton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Carleton
- ●One soil character for all of Carleton
- ●Frost dates read at Carleton's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carleton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carleton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carleton, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carleton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carleton average
How we know this about Carleton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Carleton’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Carleton
When does frost risk typically end in Carleton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carleton typically lands around Apr 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Carleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carleton typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carleton sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 22, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carleton?
The federal record around Carleton is a meaningful one — 688 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (293), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carleton?
From about Oct 6 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carleton's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carleton's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Carleton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carleton's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 688 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 5 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 688 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carleton, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carleton's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carleton's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Carletonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carleton's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carleton's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carleton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Carleton-wide figureread your own land →