Lennon, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Lennon, 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 Lennon 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 Lennon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lennon — the short answer
Lennon, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 584 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 584 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 Lennon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lennon's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lennon
Each reading below is measured for Lennon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLennon runs about 187 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
MeasuredLennon 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 Lennon is in
Lennon sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lennon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shiawassee County.
What Grows in Lennon
Every plant below cleared Lennon's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lennon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Lennon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lennon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 41 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lennon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lennon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOWDEN BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- TRACK TACK INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Speedway #8797Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GENERAL PAVEMENT MARKING INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SIMONTON WINDOWSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Amer Properties LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Wallace MattisonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Charles WellerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- David DieckUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- VENICE PARK RDF - LANDFILLBrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lennon'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 Lennon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lennon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lennon
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 Lennon
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 Lennon average
Your land is one point inside Lennon
Everything above resolves to Lennon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 584 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 Lennon Average
Lennon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lennon
- ●One soil character for all of Lennon
- ●Frost dates read at Lennon's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lennon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lennon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lennon, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lennon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lennon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lennon average
How we know this about Lennon
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 Lennon’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 Lennon
When does frost risk typically end in Lennon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lennon typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Lennon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lennon typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lennon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lennon sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 9, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lennon?
The federal record around Lennon is a meaningful one — 482 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (227), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Lennon?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lennon's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lennon'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 Lennon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lennon's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 584 acres it covers and 482 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lennon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lennon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 23 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 482 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lennon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lennon's boundary and the 584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lennon's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lennon 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 Lennon's 584 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shiawassee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shiawassee 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 Shiawassee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lennon's 584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lennon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 584 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Lennon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganLennon sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides