Clifford, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clifford, 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 Clifford 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 Clifford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clifford — the short answer
Clifford, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 965 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 965 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 Clifford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clifford's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clifford
Each reading below is measured for Clifford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClifford runs about 183 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
MeasuredClifford 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 Clifford is in
Clifford sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clifford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lapeer County.
What Grows in Clifford
Every plant below cleared Clifford's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clifford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Clifford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clifford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clifford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clifford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAPEER COUNTY TREASURERBrownfields · 100 ft
- Schaudts ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Dan MarquardtUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CIE NEWCORBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ROCHESTER GEAR, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- CIE NEWCOR RGI CLIFFORDToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- Foxs ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Marlette Veterinary ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Marlette Township AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Coulter PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Kenneth D. EastmanUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- R B AND B REPAIRBrownfields · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clifford'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 Clifford.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Clifford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clifford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clifford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clifford, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Clifford. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Clifford
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 Clifford average
Your land is one point inside Clifford
Everything above resolves to Clifford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 965 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 Clifford Average
Clifford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Clifford
- ●One soil character for all of Clifford
- ●Frost dates read at Clifford's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clifford's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clifford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clifford, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clifford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clifford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clifford average
How we know this about Clifford
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 Clifford’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 Clifford
When does frost risk typically end in Clifford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clifford typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Clifford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clifford typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clifford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clifford sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 12, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clifford?
The federal record around Clifford shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Clifford?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clifford's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clifford'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 Clifford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clifford's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 965 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clifford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clifford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 26 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clifford, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clifford's boundary and the 965 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clifford's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Clifford 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 Clifford's 965 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lapeer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lapeer 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 Lapeer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clifford's 965 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clifford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 965 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 Clifford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganClifford sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides