Freeland, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Freeland, 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 Freeland 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 Freeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Freeland — the short answer
Freeland, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- 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)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Freeland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freeland's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Freeland
Each reading below is measured for Freeland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFreeland runs about 197 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
MeasuredFreeland 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 Freeland is in
Freeland sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Freeland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saginaw County.
What Grows in Freeland
Every plant below cleared Freeland's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Freeland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Oct 31 — 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 Freeland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Freeland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 75 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Freeland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Freeland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Beatrice Meats Aka: Armour SwiftUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Freeland Community School DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TRUGREEN LIMITED PARTNERSHIPBrownfields · 700 ft
- Tru Green CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DDP SPECIALTY ELECTRONIC MATERIALS USBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CRYSTAL CLEAN LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Burt Watson Chev-pontUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BURT WATSON CHEVROLET-PONTIACBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Leamans Super Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Freeland Comm. Learning CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Myers Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CONNOISSEUR PAINT AND BODY INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freeland'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 Freeland.
Total Sites
834
within ~10 miles of Freeland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Freeland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Freeland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freeland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Freeland — PFAS (7 sites) and Brownfields (404 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Freeland
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 Freeland average
Your land is one point inside Freeland
Everything above resolves to Freeland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 town 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 Freeland Average
Freeland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Freeland
- ●One soil character for all of Freeland
- ●Frost dates read at Freeland's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freeland's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Freeland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freeland, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freeland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freeland average
How we know this about Freeland
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Freeland’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Freeland
When does frost risk typically end in Freeland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freeland 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 Freeland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Freeland typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Freeland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freeland sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 17, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freeland?
The federal record around Freeland is a meaningful one — 834 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (404), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Freeland?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Freeland's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freeland'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 Freeland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Freeland's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,216 acres it covers and 834 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freeland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freeland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 31 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 834 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Freeland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Freeland's boundary and the 4,216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Freeland's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Freeland 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 Freeland's 4,216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saginaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saginaw 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 Saginaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Freeland's 4,216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Freeland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Freeland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganFreeland sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.