Hillsdale County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hillsdale County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hillsdale County — the short answer
Hillsdale County, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 383K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 383K 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 Hillsdale County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hillsdale County's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hillsdale County
Across a year, Hillsdale County accumulates about 2,444 growing degree days above 50°F, about 344 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 66 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 Hillsdale County
Across Hillsdale County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Riddles, Fox, and Wawasee are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
17%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hillsdale County
The USDA soil survey maps 47% of Hillsdale County as well drained — but another 51% drains differently: 18% moderately well drained, 14% somewhat poorly drained.
Riddles is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Fox (10%) and Wawasee (8%).
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 Hillsdale County
Each reading below is measured for Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hillsdale County runs about pH 6.2–6.5, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 17% of Hillsdale County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHillsdale County runs about 190 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
The kind of country Hillsdale County is in
Hillsdale County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (54%) and Eastern Corn Belt Plains (46%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Hillsdale County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hillsdale County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 190-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 Hillsdale County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Hillsdale County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hillsdale County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Hillsdale County
USGS estimates 141,361 lb of Glyphosate on Hillsdale County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (41,689 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (29,100 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 Hillsdale County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hillsdale County — 339 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 Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County
Closest first, across Hillsdale County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Admiral Petroleum Co #141Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- United #6154Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CLARK OIL COBrownfields · 500 ft
- Michigan Gas UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PS Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- APC STORES INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- Leutheuser Motors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SUD Z DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Hillsdale Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALGREEN COBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Wells ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HILLSDALE CAR WASHBrownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County.
Total Sites
339
across Hillsdale County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hillsdale County
Severity Distribution
across Hillsdale County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hillsdale County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 23 sites across Hillsdale County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County average
Your land is one point inside Hillsdale County
Everything above resolves to Hillsdale County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 383K 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 Hillsdale County Average
Hillsdale County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hillsdale County
- ●One soil character for all of Hillsdale County
- ●Frost dates read at Hillsdale County's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hillsdale County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hillsdale County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hillsdale County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hillsdale County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hillsdale County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hillsdale County average
How we know this about Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hillsdale County
When does frost risk typically end in Hillsdale County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hillsdale County typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Hillsdale County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hillsdale County sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 10, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hillsdale County?
The federal record around Hillsdale County is a meaningful one — 339 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (183), 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.
Everything above is measured at Hillsdale County's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Hillsdale County's own scale — its own ~190-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 339 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hillsdale County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hillsdale County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hillsdale CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 339 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Hillsdale County's boundary and the 382,826 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hillsdale County spans, Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County — the ~190 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 Hillsdale County's 382,826 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 339 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 Hillsdale Countyread your own land →