Croswell, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Croswell, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Croswell lot. 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 Croswell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Croswell — the short answer
Croswell, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Croswell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Croswell's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Croswell
Each reading below is measured for Croswell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCroswell runs about 199 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
MeasuredCroswell 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 Croswell is in
Croswell sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Croswell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sanilac County.
What Grows in Croswell
Every plant below cleared Croswell's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Croswell?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 4 — 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 Croswell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Croswell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Croswell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Croswell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dean Pickle & Specialty ProductsUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MODERN PLASTICS TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 300 ft
- Miss MilliesUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Amoco Group Inc #1209Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MI DEPT/ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY (MDEQ) - RRDBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Speedway #8730Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Croswell Garage & Plt OfcUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE B05-74022Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Geiger SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Domingo RiveraUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Croswell'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 Croswell.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Croswell
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Croswell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Croswell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Croswell, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Croswell. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Croswell
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 Croswell average
Your land is one point inside Croswell
Everything above resolves to Croswell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Croswell Average
Croswell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Croswell
- ●One soil character for all of Croswell
- ●Frost dates read at Croswell's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Croswell's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Croswell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Croswell, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Croswell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Croswell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Croswell average
How we know this about Croswell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Croswell’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Croswell
When does frost risk typically end in Croswell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Croswell 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.
When is the first frost in Croswell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Croswell typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Croswell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Croswell sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 21, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Croswell?
The federal record around Croswell shows 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Croswell?
From about Oct 5 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Croswell's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Croswell's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Croswell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Croswell's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,508 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Croswell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Croswell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 4 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Croswell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Croswell's boundary and the 1,508 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Croswell's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Croswell checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Croswell's 1,508 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sanilac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sanilac County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sanilac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Croswell's 1,508 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Croswell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,508 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Croswell-wide figureread your own land →
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