Parchment, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Parchment, 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 Parchment 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 Parchment — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Parchment — the short answer
Parchment, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 590 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 590 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 Parchment's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parchment's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parchment
Each reading below is measured for Parchment itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParchment runs about 189 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
MeasuredParchment 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 Parchment is in
Parchment sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Parchment's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kalamazoo County.
What Grows in Parchment
Every plant below cleared Parchment's own zone 6a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parchment?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Parchment
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Parchment, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Parchment
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parchment. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Parchment School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- City Of Parchment Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORT JAMES 2015 SITEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Patwar Beer and WineUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CROWN VANTAGEToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- Crown VantageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Maagayatri Inc (dba) Parchment MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HERCULES INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HERCULES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Speedway #6610Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- United #6264Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parchment'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 Parchment.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parchment
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parchment
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 Parchment
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 Parchment average
Your land is one point inside Parchment
Everything above resolves to Parchment as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 590 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 Parchment Average
Parchment Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Parchment
- ●One soil character for all of Parchment
- ●Frost dates read at Parchment's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parchment's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parchment
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parchment, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parchment averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parchment — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parchment average
How we know this about Parchment
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 Parchment’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 Parchment
When does frost risk typically end in Parchment?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parchment typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Parchment?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parchment typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parchment?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parchment sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 12, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parchment?
The federal record around Parchment runs heavier than most — 1,393 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (622), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Parchment?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parchment's scale — its 6a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parchment'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 Parchment’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Parchment's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 590 acres it covers and 1,393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parchment's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Parchment's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 26 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parchment, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parchment's boundary and the 590 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parchment's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Parchmentlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parchment's 590 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kalamazoo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kalamazoo 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 Kalamazoo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parchment's 590 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parchment you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 590 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Parchment-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganParchment sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides