Lake LeAnn, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake LeAnn, 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 Lake LeAnn 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 Lake LeAnn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake LeAnn — the short answer
Lake LeAnn, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- 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 Lake LeAnn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake LeAnn's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake LeAnn
Each reading below is measured for Lake LeAnn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake LeAnn runs about 193 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
MeasuredLake LeAnn 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 Lake LeAnn is in
Lake LeAnn sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake LeAnn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsdale County.
What Grows in Lake LeAnn
Every plant below cleared Lake LeAnn's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake LeAnn?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Lake LeAnn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lake LeAnn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 47 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake LeAnn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake LeAnn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FANNIE MAEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- M and M Buddies LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KENT INDUSTRIAL INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Twp Of SomersetUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Ronald A Stevick Et AlUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Michigan Aggregates CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Grand River Fen piezometer 3a-Jackson County, MINitrate · 2.6 mi
- Grand River Fen piezometer 3b-Jackson County, MINitrate · 2.6 mi
- Grand River Fen piezometer 1b-Jackson County, MINitrate · 2.7 mi
- Hillsdale County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Liberty General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CERTAINTEED CORPBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake LeAnn'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 Lake LeAnn.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Lake LeAnn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake LeAnn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake LeAnn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake LeAnn, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 103 sites within ~10 miles of Lake LeAnn. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lake LeAnn
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 Lake LeAnn average
Your land is one point inside Lake LeAnn
Everything above resolves to Lake LeAnn 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 Lake LeAnn Average
Lake LeAnn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lake LeAnn
- ●One soil character for all of Lake LeAnn
- ●Frost dates read at Lake LeAnn's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake LeAnn's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake LeAnn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake LeAnn, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake LeAnn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake LeAnn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake LeAnn average
How we know this about Lake LeAnn
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 Lake LeAnn’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 Lake LeAnn
When does frost risk typically end in Lake LeAnn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake LeAnn 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 Lake LeAnn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake LeAnn typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake LeAnn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake LeAnn sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 13, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake LeAnn?
The federal record around Lake LeAnn shows 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Lake LeAnn?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake LeAnn's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake LeAnn'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 Lake LeAnn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lake LeAnn's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,060 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake LeAnn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake LeAnn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 27 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake LeAnn, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake LeAnn's boundary and the 1,060 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake LeAnn's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lake LeAnn 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 Lake LeAnn's 1,060 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsdale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsdale 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 Hillsdale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake LeAnn's 1,060 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake LeAnn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,060 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Lake LeAnn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganLake LeAnn sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides