Leonard, 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 Leonard, 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 Leonard 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 Leonard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leonard — the short answer
Leonard, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 636 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 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 636 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 Leonard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leonard's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leonard
Each reading below is measured for Leonard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeonard runs about 194 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
MeasuredLeonard 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 Leonard is in
Leonard sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leonard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oakland County.
What Grows in Leonard
Every plant below cleared Leonard's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leonard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 30 — 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 Leonard
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Leonard, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leonard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leonard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STROBELS SVCBrownfields · 50 ft
- Strobels Service LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- OAKLAND 24 (B)Nitrate · 400 ft
- Phil Starr & Son Trucking & ExcaUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Village Of Leonard / Dpw GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- COOPER STANDARD AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- CONSUMERS ENERGYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Sampson Company-addison 12 PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 05N 11E 09DAAB 01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- OAKLAND 26Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- OAKNitrate · 1.4 mi
- SUS125-40Nitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leonard'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 Leonard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leonard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leonard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leonard, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Leonard. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Leonard
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 Leonard average
Your land is one point inside Leonard
Everything above resolves to Leonard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 636 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 Leonard Average
Leonard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Leonard
- ●One soil character for all of Leonard
- ●Frost dates read at Leonard's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leonard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leonard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leonard, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leonard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leonard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leonard average
How we know this about Leonard
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 Leonard’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 Leonard
When does frost risk typically end in Leonard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leonard 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 Leonard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leonard typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leonard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leonard sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 16, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leonard?
The federal record around Leonard is a meaningful one — 475 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (183), the nearest Brownfields 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 Leonard?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leonard's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leonard'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 Leonard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leonard's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 636 acres it covers and 475 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leonard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leonard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 30 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 475 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leonard, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leonard's boundary and the 636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leonard's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Leonardlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leonard's 636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oakland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oakland 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 Oakland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leonard's 636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leonard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 636 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Leonard-wide figureread your own land →
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