Clio, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Clio, 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 Clio 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 Clio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clio — the short answer
Clio, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 709 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 709 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 Clio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clio's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clio
Each reading below is measured for Clio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClio runs about 186 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
MeasuredClio 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 Clio is in
Clio sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clio's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Genesee 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 Clio
Every plant below cleared Clio's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clio?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Clio
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clio checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Vienna Rd Alley WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- Bargain Bills CarpetUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Webster & Garner IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CLIO CHRYSLER DODGE JEEP INCBrownfields · 350 ft
- City Of ClioUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Quick Sav #27Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CLIO BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- JANS PROFESSIONAL CLEANERSBrownfields · 500 ft
- Mill Street PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Sanborn Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Clio BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AMOCO OIL COBrownfields · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clio'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 Clio.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clio
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clio, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Clio. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Clio
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 Clio average
Your land is one point inside Clio
Everything above resolves to Clio as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 709 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 Clio Average
Clio Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Clio
- ●One soil character for all of Clio
- ●Frost dates read at Clio's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clio's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clio, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clio averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clio average
How we know this about Clio
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 Clio’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 Clio
When does frost risk typically end in Clio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clio typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Clio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clio typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clio sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 8, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clio?
The federal record around Clio is a meaningful one — 613 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (294), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clio?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clio's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clio'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 Clio’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clio's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 709 acres it covers and 613 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clio's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 22 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 613 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clio, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clio's boundary and the 709 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clio sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Clio 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 Clio's 709 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Genesee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Genesee 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 Genesee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clio's 709 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 709 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clio-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganClio sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides