Hickory Corners, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hickory Corners, 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 Hickory Corners 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 Hickory Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hickory Corners — the short answer
Hickory Corners, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Hickory Corners's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hickory Corners's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hickory Corners
Each reading below is measured for Hickory Corners itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHickory Corners runs about 199 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
MeasuredHickory Corners 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 Hickory Corners is in
Hickory Corners sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hickory Corners's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barry County.
What Grows in Hickory Corners
Every plant below cleared Hickory Corners's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hickory Corners?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hickory Corners
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hickory Corners checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hickory Corners
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hickory Corners. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Goldsworthy's Marathon #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Snyder's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Kellogg Bio Station-dairy CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Choke's Gull Lake Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Kellogg Biological StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LAKESIDE TOGO LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- North Shore Party StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Kellogg Farm Learning CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Jeffrey H Brown/gull View MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- GULL LAKE COMMUNITY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- Gull Lake Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Kellogg Biological Station-maintUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hickory Corners'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 Hickory Corners.
Total Sites
277
within ~10 miles of Hickory Corners
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hickory Corners
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hickory Corners
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hickory Corners, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hickory Corners — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (5 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hickory Corners
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 Hickory Corners average
Your land is one point inside Hickory Corners
Everything above resolves to Hickory Corners 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 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 Hickory Corners Average
Hickory Corners Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hickory Corners
- ●One soil character for all of Hickory Corners
- ●Frost dates read at Hickory Corners's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hickory Corners's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hickory Corners
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hickory Corners, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hickory Corners averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hickory Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hickory Corners average
How we know this about Hickory Corners
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 Hickory Corners’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 Hickory Corners
When does frost risk typically end in Hickory Corners?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Corners typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Hickory Corners?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Corners 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hickory Corners?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hickory Corners sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 18, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hickory Corners?
The federal record around Hickory Corners is a meaningful one — 277 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Hickory Corners?
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 Hickory Corners's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hickory Corners'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 Hickory Corners’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hickory Corners's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,325 acres it covers and 277 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hickory Corners's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hickory Corners's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 1 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 277 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hickory Corners, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hickory Corners's boundary and the 1,325 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hickory Corners's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hickory Corners 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 Hickory Corners's 1,325 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barry 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 Barry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hickory Corners's 1,325 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hickory Corners you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,325 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Hickory Corners-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganHickory Corners sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides