Hubbardston, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hubbardston, 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 Hubbardston 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 Hubbardston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hubbardston — the short answer
Hubbardston, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 930 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 930 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 Hubbardston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hubbardston's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hubbardston
Each reading below is measured for Hubbardston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHubbardston 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
MeasuredHubbardston 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 Hubbardston is in
Hubbardston sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hubbardston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ionia County.
What Grows in Hubbardston
Every plant below cleared Hubbardston'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 Hubbardston?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Hubbardston
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hubbardston checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 85 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hubbardston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hubbardston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hubbardston Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 08N05W12DC-01 CATH CHNitrate · 2200 ft
- 08N04W060002Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 08N 04W 06CCC 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- Ann MiltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 08N05W09C-01 CARTERNitrate · 3.5 mi
- 08N 04W 11BBC 01Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- Cecila FitzpatrickUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Devereaux Sawmill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- WOLVERINE POWER SUPPLY COOPERATIVE INCBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- Carson City Correctional FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- 08N 04W 02DCC 01Nitrate · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hubbardston'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 Hubbardston.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Hubbardston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hubbardston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hubbardston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hubbardston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Hubbardston. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hubbardston
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 Hubbardston average
Your land is one point inside Hubbardston
Everything above resolves to Hubbardston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 930 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 Hubbardston Average
Hubbardston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hubbardston
- ●One soil character for all of Hubbardston
- ●Frost dates read at Hubbardston's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hubbardston's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hubbardston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hubbardston, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hubbardston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hubbardston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hubbardston average
How we know this about Hubbardston
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 Hubbardston’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 Hubbardston
When does frost risk typically end in Hubbardston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hubbardston typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Hubbardston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hubbardston typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hubbardston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hubbardston sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 10, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hubbardston?
The federal record around Hubbardston shows 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hubbardston?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hubbardston's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hubbardston'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 Hubbardston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hubbardston's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 930 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hubbardston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hubbardston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 24 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hubbardston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hubbardston's boundary and the 930 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 Hubbardston's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hubbardston 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 Hubbardston's 930 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ionia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ionia 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 Ionia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hubbardston's 930 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hubbardston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 930 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hubbardston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganHubbardston sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides