Clawson, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Clawson, 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 Clawson 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 Clawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clawson — the short answer
Clawson, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 6b is Clawson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clawson's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clawson
Each reading below is measured for Clawson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClawson runs about 219 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
MeasuredClawson sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Clawson is in
Clawson sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clawson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oakland County is mostly Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Clawson
Every plant below cleared Clawson's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clawson?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Clawson
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Clawson, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clawson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clawson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLAWSONPFAS · 0 ft
- Clawson High School Former Auto Shop AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Spunkys GymUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Hunamar ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COLLEX COLLISION EXPERTS INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Judges CollisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FRANCIS JONES TRUSTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- DAVIS MFG COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- United Unit #6196Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CLAWSON FABRICARE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Gorden's ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Former Texaco Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clawson'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 Clawson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clawson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clawson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clawson, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,713 sites within ~10 miles of Clawson. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Clawson
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 Clawson average
Your land is one point inside Clawson
Everything above resolves to Clawson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Clawson Average
Clawson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Clawson
- ●One soil character for all of Clawson
- ●Frost dates read at Clawson's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clawson's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clawson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clawson, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clawson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clawson average
How we know this about Clawson
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 Clawson’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 Clawson
When does frost risk typically end in Clawson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clawson typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Clawson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clawson typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clawson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clawson sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 28, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clawson?
The federal record around Clawson runs heavier than most — 5,220 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,713), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Clawson?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clawson's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clawson'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 Clawson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clawson's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,408 acres it covers and 5,220 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clawson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clawson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 11 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,220 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clawson, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clawson's boundary and the 1,408 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clawson sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Clawsonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clawson's 1,408 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oakland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oakland 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 Oakland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clawson's 1,408 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clawson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,408 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Clawson-wide figureread your own land →
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