Midland, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Midland, 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 Midland 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 Midland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midland — the short answer
Midland, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 22K 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 Midland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midland's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midland
Each reading below is measured for Midland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMidland 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
MeasuredMidland 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 Midland is in
Midland sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Midland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Midland County.
What Grows in Midland
Every plant below cleared Midland'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 Midland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Midland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Midland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 84 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Midland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KROGER CO OF MICHIGANBrownfields · 900 ft
- RITE AID #4382Brownfields · 1100 ft
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Speedway #8805Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Firestone #7356/004820Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- THE SHERWIN WILLIAMS COBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Midland MainUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Mechanics Laundry & Supply IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TITTABAWASSEE RIVERSuperfund · 2300 ft
- PNK ENTERPRISE INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Speedway #6276Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Mc Creadie Shell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midland'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 Midland.
Total Sites
509
within ~10 miles of Midland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midland
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Midland
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 Midland average
Your land is one point inside Midland
Everything above resolves to Midland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Midland Average
Midland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Midland
- ●One soil character for all of Midland
- ●Frost dates read at Midland's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midland's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midland, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midland average
How we know this about Midland
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 Midland’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 Midland
When does frost risk typically end in Midland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midland typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Midland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midland typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midland sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 14, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midland?
The federal record around Midland is a meaningful one — 509 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (243), 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 Midland?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Midland's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midland'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 Midland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Midland's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,085 acres it covers and 509 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Midland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 28 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 509 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midland's boundary and the 22,085 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 Midland's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Midland 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 Midland's 22,085 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Midland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Midland 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 Midland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Midland's 22,085 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,085 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 Midland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMidland sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.