Leelanau County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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.
Leelanau County lies within the Leelanau & Old Mission Peninsulas — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Leelanau County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Leelanau 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 Leelanau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leelanau County — the short answer
Leelanau County, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 222K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 222K 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 6b is Leelanau County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leelanau County's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Leelanau County
Across a year, Leelanau County accumulates about 1,725 growing degree days above 50°F, about 375 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 15 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 Leelanau County
Across Leelanau County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Leelanau, Kaleva, and East Lake are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Leelanau County
The USDA soil survey maps 41% of Leelanau County as well drained — but another 49% drains differently: 22% excessively drained, 14% somewhat excessively drained.
Leelanau is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Kaleva (16%) and East Lake (15%).
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 Leelanau County
Each reading below is measured for Leelanau 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 Leelanau County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Leelanau County runs about pH 5.8–6.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredLeelanau County runs about 210 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
MeasuredLeelanau County 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 Leelanau County is in
Leelanau County sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Leelanau County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Leelanau County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 210-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 Leelanau County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Nov 15 — 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 Leelanau County
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly16 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Leelanau County
USGS estimates 8,059 lb of Glyphosate on Leelanau County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (2,905 lb) and Trifloxystrobin (2,569 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 Leelanau County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Leelanau County — 160 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites. 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 Leelanau 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 Leelanau County
Closest first, across Leelanau County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- South Manitou Island Maint ComplUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- Homecare Management CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.1 mi
- The Bayberry Group IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.3 mi
- Leland Township HarborUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.5 mi
- VANS GARAGEBrownfields · 16.5 mi
- Vans Garage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.5 mi
- Earlybird RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.6 mi
- Stander Marine IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.7 mi
- STANDER MARINE INCBrownfields · 16.7 mi
- Leelanau County Sheriffs DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.7 mi
- Wright & SchlittsUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.8 mi
- Glen Haven StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 16.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leelanau 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 Leelanau County.
Sources Checked
across Leelanau County
Severity Distribution
across Leelanau County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leelanau County, two things run higher than the national average across Leelanau County — Superfund (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (108 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Leelanau 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 Leelanau County average
Your land is one point inside Leelanau County
Everything above resolves to Leelanau County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 222K 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 Leelanau County Average
Leelanau County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Leelanau County
- ●One soil character for all of Leelanau County
- ●Frost dates read at Leelanau County's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leelanau County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Leelanau County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leelanau County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leelanau County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leelanau County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leelanau County average
How we know this about Leelanau 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 Leelanau County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Leelanau County
When does frost risk typically end in Leelanau County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leelanau County 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.
How long is the growing season in Leelanau County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leelanau County sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Nov 1, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leelanau County?
The federal record around Leelanau County is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 5.7 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 Leelanau County's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leelanau 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 Leelanau County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Leelanau County's own scale — its own ~210-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 160 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leelanau County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leelanau County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Leelanau CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 160 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 5.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Leelanau County's boundary and the 222,208 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Leelanau County sitting wholly inside the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Leelanau County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Leelanau 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 Leelanau County — the ~210 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 Leelanau County's 222,208 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 160 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 Leelanau Countyread your own land →