Leslie, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leslie, 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 Leslie 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 Leslie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leslie — the short answer
Leslie, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 821 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 821 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 5b is Leslie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leslie's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leslie
Each reading below is measured for Leslie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeslie runs about 185 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
MeasuredLeslie sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Leslie is in
Leslie sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leslie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ingham County.
What Grows in Leslie
Every plant below cleared Leslie's own zone 5b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leslie?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Leslie
Survey cells within 31 miles of Leslie checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leslie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leslie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Main StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Leslie Area Ambulance Serv, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Leslie LaundryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Dept Of Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Leslie Cooperative, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ISC PLATINGSuperfund · 1400 ft
- Residence / FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FOGG OIL COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Fogg Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Speedway #2334Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Amoco Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leslie'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 Leslie.
Total Sites
217
within ~10 miles of Leslie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leslie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leslie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leslie, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Leslie. 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 Leslie
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 Leslie average
Your land is one point inside Leslie
Everything above resolves to Leslie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 821 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 Leslie Average
Leslie Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Leslie
- ●One soil character for all of Leslie
- ●Frost dates read at Leslie's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leslie's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leslie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leslie, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leslie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leslie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leslie average
How we know this about Leslie
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 Leslie’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 Leslie
When does frost risk typically end in Leslie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leslie typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Leslie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leslie typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leslie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leslie sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 10, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leslie?
The federal record around Leslie is a meaningful one — 217 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (123), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Leslie?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leslie's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leslie'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 Leslie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Leslie's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 821 acres it covers and 217 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leslie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leslie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 24 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 217 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leslie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leslie's boundary and the 821 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leslie's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Leslie 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 Leslie's 821 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ingham 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 Ingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leslie's 821 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leslie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 821 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Leslie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganLeslie sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides