Wayne County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Wayne 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
Wayne County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wayne 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 Wayne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wayne County — the short answer
Wayne County, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 392K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 392K 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 Wayne County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wayne County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Wayne County
Across a year, Wayne County accumulates about 2,870 growing degree days above 50°F, about 770 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of every other Michigan county. 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 Wayne County
Across Wayne County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Tedrow, Pewamo, and Blount are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
22%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wayne County
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Wayne County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 35% drains differently: 20% poorly drained, 6% well drained.
Tedrow is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Pewamo (7%) and Blount (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 Wayne County
Each reading below is measured for Wayne 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 Wayne County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group 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 Wayne County runs about pH 6.5–7.5, 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
MeasuredWayne County runs about 203 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
MeasuredWayne 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 Wayne County is in
Wayne 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 Wayne County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wayne County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 203-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 Wayne 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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Wayne County
Spotted lanternfly documented 5 miles from Wayne County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly929 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wayne County
USGS estimates 5,633 lb of Glyphosate on Wayne County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,431 lb) and 2,4-d (1,042 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 Wayne County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wayne County — 8,975 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 223 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Wayne 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 Wayne County
Closest first, across Wayne County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUEEN STREET MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 1800 ft
- REMAX LEADING EDGEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Sunoco Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SUNOCO INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- THE COLLISION SHOPBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Vacant LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Dale P. Seyfried Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MORAN FOODSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Shell Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DEARBORN HEIGHTS FIRE DEPTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Dearborn Heights-fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wayne 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 Wayne County.
Sources Checked
across Wayne County
Severity Distribution
across Wayne County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wayne County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 223 sites across Wayne County. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wayne 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 Wayne County average
Your land is one point inside Wayne County
Everything above resolves to Wayne County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 392K 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 Wayne County Average
Wayne County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wayne County
- ●One soil character for all of Wayne County
- ●Frost dates read at Wayne County's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wayne County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wayne County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wayne County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wayne County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wayne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wayne County average
How we know this about Wayne 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 Wayne County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wayne County
When does frost risk typically end in Wayne County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wayne County typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Wayne County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wayne County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 20, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wayne County?
The federal record around Wayne County runs heavier than most — 8,975 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4,192), the nearest Superfund record about 0.3 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 Wayne County's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wayne 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 Wayne County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wayne County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 8,975 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wayne County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wayne County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Wayne CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 8,975 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wayne County's boundary and the 391,579 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wayne County sitting wholly inside the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wayne County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wayne 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 Wayne County — the ~203 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 Wayne County's 391,579 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 8,975 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 Wayne Countyread your own land →