Farmington Hills, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Farmington Hills, 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 Farmington Hills 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 Farmington Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Farmington Hills — the short answer
Farmington Hills, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Farmington Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farmington Hills's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farmington Hills
Each reading below is measured for Farmington Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarmington Hills runs about 198 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
MeasuredFarmington Hills 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 Farmington Hills is in
Farmington Hills sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farmington Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oakland County.
What Grows in Farmington Hills
Every plant below cleared Farmington Hills's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farmington Hills?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Farmington Hills
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Farmington Hills, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Farmington Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farmington Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- First Presbyterian Church Of FarUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 01N 09E 21AAAA 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- OAK 36Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- DTE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Thornbrook Pumping StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- City of Farmington HillsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ALEXANDER PROPERTY INVESTMENTS LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- K/LB TWELVE MILE ASSOCIATES LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LOIS GROSS CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ABA INVESTMENTS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Atson IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FARMINGTON HILLS SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farmington Hills'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 Farmington Hills.
Total Sites
3,812
within ~10 miles of Farmington Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farmington Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farmington Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farmington Hills, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,059 sites within ~10 miles of Farmington Hills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Farmington Hills
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 Farmington Hills average
Your land is one point inside Farmington Hills
Everything above resolves to Farmington Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Farmington Hills Average
Farmington Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Farmington Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Farmington Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Farmington Hills's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farmington Hills's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farmington Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farmington Hills, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farmington Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farmington Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farmington Hills average
How we know this about Farmington Hills
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 Farmington Hills’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 Farmington Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Farmington Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farmington Hills typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Farmington Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farmington Hills typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farmington Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farmington Hills sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 18, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farmington Hills?
The federal record around Farmington Hills is a meaningful one — 3,812 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,059), 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 Farmington Hills?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farmington Hills's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farmington Hills'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 Farmington Hills’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Farmington Hills's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,292 acres it covers and 3,812 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farmington Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farmington Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 1 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,812 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farmington Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farmington Hills's boundary and the 21,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farmington Hills's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Farmington Hillslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Farmington Hills's 21,292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oakland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oakland 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 Oakland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farmington Hills's 21,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farmington Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,292 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 Farmington Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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