Detroit, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Detroit, 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 Detroit 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 Detroit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Detroit — the short answer
Detroit, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 89K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 89K 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 6b is Detroit's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Detroit's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Detroit
Each reading below is measured for Detroit itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDetroit runs about 221 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
MeasuredDetroit 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 Detroit is in
Detroit sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Detroit's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Detroit
Every plant below cleared Detroit's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Detroit?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Detroit
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Detroit, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Detroit
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Detroit. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mohsen NassarUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- WORLDMED MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 1800 ft
- Tuxedo Medical CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Amoco Oil Station #5023Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Shell Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Marathon Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Webb Operating IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Citgo - L & F Mini Mart IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DETROIT SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Detroit'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 Detroit.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Detroit
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Detroit
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Detroit, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 163 sites within ~10 miles of Detroit. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Detroit
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 Detroit average
Your land is one point inside Detroit
Everything above resolves to Detroit as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 89K 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 Detroit Average
Detroit Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Detroit
- ●One soil character for all of Detroit
- ●Frost dates read at Detroit's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Detroit's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Detroit
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Detroit, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Detroit averages can't show:
We read public map data around Detroit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Detroit average
How we know this about Detroit
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 Detroit’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 Detroit
When does frost risk typically end in Detroit?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Detroit typically lands around Apr 5, 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 Apr 26.
When is the first frost in Detroit?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Detroit typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Detroit?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Detroit sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 29, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Detroit?
The federal record around Detroit is a meaningful one — 6,540 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,120), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Detroit?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Detroit's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Detroit'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 Detroit’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Detroit's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 88,790 acres it covers and 6,540 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Detroit's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Detroit's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 12 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,540 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Detroit, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Detroit's boundary and the 88,790 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Detroit's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Detroitlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Detroit's 88,790 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Detroit's 88,790 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Detroit you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 88,790 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 Detroit-wide figureread your own land →