Durand, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Durand, 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 Durand 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 Durand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Durand — the short answer
Durand, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Durand's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Durand's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Durand
Each reading below is measured for Durand itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDurand runs about 185 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
MeasuredDurand 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 Durand is in
Durand sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Durand's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shiawassee County.
What Grows in Durand
Every plant below cleared Durand's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Durand?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Durand
Survey cells within 31 miles of Durand checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 41 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Durand
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Durand. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- B & B Shop/work EquipmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Vernon Twp LibraryUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Victory Machine CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VICTORY MACHINE CO INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- DURAND COLLISIONBrownfields · 800 ft
- City Of DurandUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- JESSE LAMBERTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Shaws PharmacyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Former Durand Feed and Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Ed Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TEREX POWERSCREEN USAToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- POWERSCREEN USA LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Durand'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 Durand.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Durand
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Durand
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Durand
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 Durand average
Your land is one point inside Durand
Everything above resolves to Durand as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Durand Average
Durand Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Durand
- ●One soil character for all of Durand
- ●Frost dates read at Durand's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Durand's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Durand
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Durand, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Durand averages can't show:
We read public map data around Durand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Durand average
How we know this about Durand
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 Durand’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 Durand
When does frost risk typically end in Durand?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Durand typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Durand?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Durand typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Durand?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Durand sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 9, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Durand?
The federal record around Durand is a meaningful one — 213 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), 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 Durand?
From about Sep 23 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 Oct 23 (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 Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Durand's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Durand'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 Durand’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Durand's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,250 acres it covers and 213 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Durand's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Durand's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 23 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 213 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Durand, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Durand's boundary and the 1,250 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Durand's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Durand 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 Durand's 1,250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shiawassee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shiawassee 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 Shiawassee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Durand's 1,250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Durand you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,250 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 Durand-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganDurand sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.