Kingsford, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Kingsford, 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 Kingsford 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 Kingsford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kingsford — the short answer
Kingsford, Michigan: USDA zone 4b, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 4b is Kingsford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingsford's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kingsford
Each reading below is measured for Kingsford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKingsford runs about 152 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
MeasuredKingsford sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Kingsford is in
Kingsford sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Kingsford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dickinson County.
What Grows in Kingsford
Every plant below cleared Kingsford's own zone 4b and its 152-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kingsford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Kingsford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kingsford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 39N 31W 02B 01 DICKINSON CO (MW-6)Nitrate · 500 ft
- 39N 31W 02B 01 DICKINSON CO (MW-10)Nitrate · 750 ft
- Kingsford Public Safety DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 39N 31W 02B 01 DICKINSON CO (MW-4)Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 39N 31W 02B 01 DICKINSON CO (BR-3-596)Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 39N 31W 02B 01 DICKINSON CO (BR-3-596 REP)Nitrate · 1500 ft
- DC AUTO ELECTRIC INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- 39N 31W 02A 01 DICKINSON CO (MW-8)Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 39N 31W 35D 01 DICKINSON CO (UG-1)Nitrate · 2200 ft
- FORMER FORD KINGSFORD PLTSuperfund · 2600 ft
- 39N 31W 02A 01 DICKINSON CO (MW-96-2)Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 39N 31W 02A 01 DICKINSON CO (MW-96-2-2)Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingsford'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 Kingsford.
Total Sites
389
within ~10 miles of Kingsford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kingsford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kingsford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingsford, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Kingsford. 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 Kingsford
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 Kingsford average
Your land is one point inside Kingsford
Everything above resolves to Kingsford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Kingsford Average
Kingsford Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Kingsford
- ●One soil character for all of Kingsford
- ●Frost dates read at Kingsford's scale: May 9 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingsford's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kingsford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingsford, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingsford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingsford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingsford average
How we know this about Kingsford
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 Kingsford’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 Kingsford
When does frost risk typically end in Kingsford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingsford typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Kingsford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kingsford typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 152 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kingsford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingsford sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 24, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingsford?
The federal record around Kingsford is a meaningful one — 389 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (173), the nearest Nitrate 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 Kingsford?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kingsford's scale — its 4b band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingsford'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 Kingsford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kingsford's own scale — its own ~152-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,764 acres it covers and 389 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kingsford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kingsford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 8 and the ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 389 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kingsford, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kingsford's boundary and the 2,764 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kingsford's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kingsford's 2,764 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dickinson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dickinson 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 Dickinson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kingsford's 2,764 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kingsford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,764 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Kingsford-wide figureread your own land →
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