Carson City, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carson City, 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 Carson City 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 Carson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carson City — the short answer
Carson City, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 732 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 732 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 Carson City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carson City's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carson City
Each reading below is measured for Carson City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarson City runs about 182 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCarson City 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 Carson City is in
Carson City sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carson City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Montcalm County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Carson City
Every plant below cleared Carson City's own zone 6a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carson City?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Carson City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Carson City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 88 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Carson City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carson City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Carson City Elevator ComplexUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Petersen Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Countrymark IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DTE ELECTRIC COMPANY - RENAISSANCE POWER PLANTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Dpw DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Carson City Crystal Area SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Ambulance DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Mckinley Trucking Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Carson City EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Carson City BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Geller Auto Service, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carson City'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 Carson City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carson City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carson City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carson City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Carson City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Carson City
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 Carson City average
Your land is one point inside Carson City
Everything above resolves to Carson City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 732 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 city 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 Carson City Average
Carson City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Carson City
- ●One soil character for all of Carson City
- ●Frost dates read at Carson City's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carson City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carson City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carson City, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carson City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carson City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carson City average
How we know this about Carson City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Carson City’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Carson City
When does frost risk typically end in Carson City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carson City typically lands around Apr 24, 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 May 15.
When is the first frost in Carson City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carson City typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carson City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carson City sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 9, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carson City?
The federal record around Carson City shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carson City?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 23 (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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carson City's scale — its 6a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carson City'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 Carson City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Carson City's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 732 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carson City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carson City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 23 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carson City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carson City's boundary and the 732 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Carson City sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Carson City checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carson City's 732 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montcalm County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montcalm 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 Montcalm County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carson City's 732 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carson City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 732 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Carson City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganCarson City sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides