Flushing, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Flushing, 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 Flushing 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 Flushing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Flushing — the short answer
Flushing, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- 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 Flushing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Flushing's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Flushing
Each reading below is measured for Flushing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFlushing 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
MeasuredFlushing 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 Flushing is in
Flushing sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Flushing's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Genesee County is mostly Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Flushing
Every plant below cleared Flushing'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 Flushing?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Flushing
Survey cells within 31 miles of Flushing checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Flushing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Flushing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- City of Flushing Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Delehanty Pontiac #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DELEHANTY PONTIAC CO INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Flushing ESS (M21180)Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CITY OF FLUSHING DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- City of Flushing GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Fuel & Tobacco Stop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- (dba) Beacon & Bridge Market #12Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Frank Mcnally IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Flushing Valley Golf & Country CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 08N05E25CBBA01 FLSHNG NO. 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Flushing'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 Flushing.
Total Sites
1,217
within ~10 miles of Flushing
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
23 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Flushing
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Flushing
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Flushing, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Flushing. 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 Flushing
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 Flushing average
Your land is one point inside Flushing
Everything above resolves to Flushing 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 Flushing Average
Flushing Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Flushing
- ●One soil character for all of Flushing
- ●Frost dates read at Flushing's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Flushing's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Flushing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Flushing, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Flushing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Flushing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Flushing average
How we know this about Flushing
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 Flushing’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 Flushing
When does frost risk typically end in Flushing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Flushing typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Flushing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Flushing typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Flushing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Flushing sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 8, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Flushing?
The federal record around Flushing is a meaningful one — 1,217 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (557), 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 Flushing?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Flushing's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Flushing'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 Flushing’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Flushing's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,311 acres it covers and 1,217 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Flushing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Flushing's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 22 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,217 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Flushing, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Flushing's boundary and the 2,311 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Flushing sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Flushing 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 Flushing's 2,311 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Genesee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Genesee 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 Genesee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Flushing's 2,311 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Flushing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,311 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 Flushing-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganFlushing sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides