Macomb County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Macomb 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
Macomb County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Macomb 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 Macomb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Macomb County — the short answer
Macomb County, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 307K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 307K 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 Macomb County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macomb County's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Macomb County
Across a year, Macomb County accumulates about 2,753 growing degree days above 50°F, about 653 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 81 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 Macomb County
Across Macomb County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Lenawee, Conover, and Selfridge are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
41%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Macomb County
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Macomb County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 60% drains differently: 33% poorly drained, 17% well drained.
Lenawee is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Conover (8%) and Selfridge (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 Macomb County
Each reading below is measured for Macomb 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 Macomb 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 Macomb County runs about pH 6.3–7.5, 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
MeasuredMacomb County runs about 206 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
MeasuredMacomb 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 Macomb County is in
Macomb County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Huron/Erie Lake Plains (91%) and Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (9%). 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 Macomb County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Macomb County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 206-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 Macomb County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Macomb County
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Macomb County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle13 documented records
- monarch butterfly470 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Macomb County
USGS estimates 34,011 lb of Glyphosate on Macomb County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (8,659 lb) and Atrazine (6,347 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 Macomb County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Macomb County — 3,489 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 29 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Macomb 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 Macomb County
Closest first, across Macomb County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LANDTEC INVESTMENTS LLCBrownfields · 500 ft
- WALGREEN COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SOUTH MACOMB DISPOSAL AUTHORITY (LANDFILLS #9 AND #9A)Superfund · 0.7 mi
- POLARIS ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ELITE DRY CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- WOODWARD DETROIT CVS,LLCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 23 & Romeo Plank IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Earl RohrbeckUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 7-Eleven #32721Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 23 & North Fuel Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 23 Mile PetroUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Macomb 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 Macomb County.
Sources Checked
across Macomb County
Severity Distribution
across Macomb County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Macomb County, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,917 sites across Macomb County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Macomb 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 Macomb County average
Your land is one point inside Macomb County
Everything above resolves to Macomb County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 307K 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 Macomb County Average
Macomb County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Macomb County
- ●One soil character for all of Macomb County
- ●Frost dates read at Macomb County's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macomb County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Macomb County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macomb County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macomb County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macomb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macomb County average
How we know this about Macomb 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 Macomb County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Macomb County
When does frost risk typically end in Macomb County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macomb County typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Macomb County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macomb County sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 22, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macomb County?
The federal record around Macomb County runs heavier than most — 3,489 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,917), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Macomb County's scale — its 6b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macomb 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 Macomb County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Macomb County's own scale — its own ~206-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 3,489 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macomb County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macomb County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Macomb CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 3,489 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Macomb County's boundary and the 306,787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Macomb County spans, Huron/Erie Lake Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Macomb County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Macomb 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 Macomb County — the ~206 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 Macomb County's 306,787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 3,489 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 Macomb Countyread your own land →