Livingston County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Livingston County lies within Metro Detroit & Southeast Michigan — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Livingston County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Livingston 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 Livingston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Livingston County — the short answer
Livingston County, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 362K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 362K 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 Livingston County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Livingston County's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Livingston County
Across a year, Livingston County accumulates about 2,452 growing degree days above 50°F, about 352 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 67 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 Livingston County
Across Livingston County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Wawasee, Boyer, and Carlisle are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
30%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Livingston County
The USDA soil survey maps 62% of Livingston County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 15% very poorly drained, 10% somewhat poorly drained.
Wawasee is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Boyer (11%) and Carlisle (10%).
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 Livingston County
Each reading below is measured for Livingston 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 Livingston County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Livingston County runs about pH 6.1–7.0, 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 24% of Livingston 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
MeasuredLivingston 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
The kind of country Livingston County is in
Livingston 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 Livingston County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Livingston 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 Livingston 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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Livingston County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Livingston County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 31 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly122 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Livingston County
USGS estimates 59,472 lb of Glyphosate on Livingston County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (12,937 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (9,637 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 Livingston County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Livingston County — 819 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Livingston County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Livingston County
Closest first, across Livingston County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bituminous Materials Co Mich.Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PEACEMAKERS LLCBrownfields · 800 ft
- Genoa - Oceola Main Lift StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Tri-state Hospital Supply CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9223Brownfields · 900 ft
- Mugg & BoppsUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- E.e. BachmanUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CENTURION MEDICAL PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CENTURION MEDICAL PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- WOODWARD DETROIT CVS LLC #8046Brownfields · 1400 ft
- GENOA HEALTHCARE LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Rite Aid Store #4420Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Livingston 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 Livingston County.
Sources Checked
across Livingston County
Severity Distribution
across Livingston County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Livingston County, two things run higher than the national average across Livingston County — Superfund (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (54 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Livingston 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 Livingston County average
Your land is one point inside Livingston County
Everything above resolves to Livingston County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 362K 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 Livingston County Average
Livingston County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Livingston County
- ●One soil character for all of Livingston County
- ●Frost dates read at Livingston County's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Livingston County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Livingston County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Livingston County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Livingston County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Livingston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Livingston County average
How we know this about Livingston 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 Livingston County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Livingston County
When does frost risk typically end in Livingston County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston County typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Livingston County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Livingston County sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 11, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Livingston County?
The federal record around Livingston County runs heavier than most — 819 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (373), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Livingston County's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Livingston 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 Livingston County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Livingston County's own scale — its own ~187-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 819 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Livingston County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Livingston 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 Livingston CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 819 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Livingston County's boundary and the 361,785 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Livingston County sitting wholly inside the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Livingston County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Livingston 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 Livingston 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 Livingston County's 361,785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 819 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 Livingston Countyread your own land →