Midland 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
Midland County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Midland 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 Midland County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Midland County — the short answer
Midland County, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 332K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 332K 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 Midland County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midland County's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Midland County
Across a year, Midland County accumulates about 2,392 growing degree days above 50°F, about 292 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 60 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 Midland County
Across Midland County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Selfridge, Belleville, and Covert are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
47%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Midland County
The USDA soil survey maps 43% of Midland County as poorly drained — but another 54% drains differently: 41% somewhat poorly drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Selfridge is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Belleville (10%) and Covert (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 Midland County
Each reading below is measured for Midland 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 Midland County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/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 Midland 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
MeasuredMidland County runs about 189 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
MeasuredMidland 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 Midland County is in
Midland County sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Midland County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Midland County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 189-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 Midland 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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Midland County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Midland County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 90 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle4 documented records
- monarch butterfly58 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Midland County
USGS estimates 35,751 lb of Glyphosate on Midland County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (8,301 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (8,217 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 Midland County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Midland County — 451 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (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 Midland 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 Midland County
Closest first, across Midland County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Larry ParsonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Pump N Pour #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Peoples Garbage Disposal IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Henry Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CONSUMERS ENERGYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- RICKS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- GOLD CROWN DEVELOPMENT CO INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Gold Crown Development CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Coles Garage (allen J Cole)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Bye's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Meridian Road Pac-PrideUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 111-HOMER-1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midland 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 Midland County.
Total Sites
451
across Midland County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Midland County
Severity Distribution
across Midland County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Midland County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 29 sites across Midland County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Midland 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 Midland County average
Your land is one point inside Midland County
Everything above resolves to Midland County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 332K 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 Midland County Average
Midland County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Midland County
- ●One soil character for all of Midland County
- ●Frost dates read at Midland County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midland County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Midland County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midland County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midland County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midland County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midland County average
How we know this about Midland 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 Midland County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Midland County
When does frost risk typically end in Midland County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midland County typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Midland County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midland County sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 12, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midland County?
The federal record around Midland County is a meaningful one — 451 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (204), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Midland County's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midland 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 Midland County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Midland County's own scale — its own ~189-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 451 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midland County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Midland County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Midland CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 451 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Midland County's boundary and the 331,798 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Midland County sitting wholly inside the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Midland County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Midland 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 Midland County — the ~189 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 Midland County's 331,798 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 451 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 Midland Countyread your own land →