Morley, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morley, 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 Morley 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 Morley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morley — the short answer
Morley, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 573 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 573 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 Morley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morley's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morley
Each reading below is measured for Morley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorley runs about 165 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
MeasuredMorley 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 Morley is in
Morley sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Morley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mecosta County.
What Grows in Morley
Every plant below cleared Morley's own zone 5b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morley?
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 Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Morley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Morley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 105 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Morley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D & T Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Carl & Linda VeltingUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- C.m Market(aka Buffalo Chips Market)Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Wool-B LLC (dba) Morley DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Kitson Manufacturing, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NIHAL PETROLEUM LLCBrownfields · 700 ft
- Morley CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Mecosta County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Morley Bus Garage/elementary SchUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MORLEY FARMBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Morley GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morley'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 Morley.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Morley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Morley
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 Morley average
Your land is one point inside Morley
Everything above resolves to Morley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 573 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 Morley Average
Morley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Morley
- ●One soil character for all of Morley
- ●Frost dates read at Morley's scale: May 1 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morley, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morley average
How we know this about Morley
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 Morley’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 Morley
When does frost risk typically end in Morley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morley typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Morley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morley typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morley sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 29, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morley?
The federal record around Morley shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Morley?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morley's scale — its 5b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morley'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 Morley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Morley's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 573 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 13 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morley's boundary and the 573 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morley's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Morley 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 Morley's 573 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mecosta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mecosta 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 Mecosta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morley's 573 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 573 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 Morley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMorley sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides