Lapeer, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Lapeer, 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 Lapeer 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 Lapeer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lapeer — the short answer
Lapeer, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Lapeer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lapeer's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lapeer
Each reading below is measured for Lapeer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLapeer runs about 190 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
MeasuredLapeer 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 Lapeer is in
Lapeer sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lapeer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lapeer County.
What Grows in Lapeer
Every plant below cleared Lapeer's own zone 6a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lapeer?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Lapeer
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Lapeer, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lapeer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lapeer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOME DEPOT USA INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- MEIJER INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Gas Station #140Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KROGER CO OF MICHIGANBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Kroger 600Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WALGREEN CO.Brownfields · 1900 ft
- Southgate Office Of Lapeer BankUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Colonial Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Former Coldwell Banker RealtyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- AUTOZONE INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- HAMADY COMPLETE FOOD CENTERBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lapeer'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 Lapeer.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lapeer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lapeer
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Lapeer
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 Lapeer average
Your land is one point inside Lapeer
Everything above resolves to Lapeer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Lapeer Average
Lapeer Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lapeer
- ●One soil character for all of Lapeer
- ●Frost dates read at Lapeer's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lapeer's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lapeer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lapeer, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lapeer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lapeer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lapeer average
How we know this about Lapeer
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 Lapeer’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 Lapeer
When does frost risk typically end in Lapeer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lapeer typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Lapeer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lapeer 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lapeer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lapeer sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 13, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lapeer?
The federal record around Lapeer is a meaningful one — 333 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (155), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Lapeer?
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 Lapeer's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lapeer'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 Lapeer’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lapeer's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,701 acres it covers and 333 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lapeer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lapeer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 27 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 333 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lapeer, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lapeer's boundary and the 4,701 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lapeer's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lapeerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lapeer's 4,701 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lapeer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lapeer 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 Lapeer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lapeer's 4,701 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lapeer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,701 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Lapeer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganLapeer sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides