Clinton County, in 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Clinton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Clinton County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Clinton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clinton County — the short answer
Clinton County, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 363K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 363K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Clinton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clinton County's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Clinton County
Across a year, Clinton County accumulates about 2,415 growing degree days above 50°F, about 315 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 61 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Clinton County
Across Clinton County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Conover, Marlette, and Boyer are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
12%
Hydric soils
31%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Clinton County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Clinton County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 57% drains differently: 21% poorly drained, 20% well drained.
Conover is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Marlette (12%) and Boyer (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Clinton County
Each reading below is measured for Clinton County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Clinton County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Clinton County runs about pH 6.2–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredClinton County runs about 187 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
MeasuredClinton County 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 Clinton County is in
Clinton County sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Clinton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Clinton County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 187-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile.
Is it too late to plant in Clinton County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Clinton County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Clinton County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 70 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle20 documented records
- monarch butterfly30 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Clinton County
USGS estimates 149,810 lb of Glyphosate on Clinton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (71,459 lb) and Acetochlor (41,404 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Clinton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Clinton County — 521 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Clinton County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Clinton County
Closest first, across Clinton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Searles Mobile Home ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HOUGHTONS INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- MARVIN D WRIGHTBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Clinton Co Intermediate Sch DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- P K CONTRACTING INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- KP AUTO BODY AND COLLISION REPAIRBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- St. Johns CardlockUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 07N 03W 27DDDD 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Clinton County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- COUNTY OF CLINTON ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Rivendell Of MichiganUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SAINT JOHNS ORAL SURGERYBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clinton County'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 Clinton County.
Total Sites
521
across Clinton County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Clinton County
Severity Distribution
across Clinton County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Clinton County
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 Clinton County average
Your land is one point inside Clinton County
Everything above resolves to Clinton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 363K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Clinton County Average
Clinton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Clinton County
- ●One soil character for all of Clinton County
- ●Frost dates read at Clinton County's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clinton County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Clinton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clinton County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clinton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clinton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clinton County average
How we know this about Clinton County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Clinton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Clinton County
When does frost risk typically end in Clinton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clinton County typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Clinton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clinton County sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 12, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clinton County?
The federal record around Clinton County is a meaningful one — 521 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (260), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Clinton County's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clinton County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Michigan's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Clinton County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Clinton County's own scale — its own ~187-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 521 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clinton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clinton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Clinton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 521 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Clinton County's boundary and the 363,103 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clinton County sitting wholly inside the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Clinton County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Clinton County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Clinton County — the ~187 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clinton County's 363,103 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 521 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Clinton Countyread your own land →