Parma, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Parma, 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 Parma 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 Parma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Parma — the short answer
Parma, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 672 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 672 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 Parma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parma's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parma
Each reading below is measured for Parma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParma runs about 187 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
MeasuredParma 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 Parma is in
Parma sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Parma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Parma
Every plant below cleared Parma's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parma?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Parma
Survey cells within 31 miles of Parma checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 60 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Parma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MICHIGAN AUTOMOTIVE COMPRESSOR INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- MICHIGAN AUTOMOTIVE COMPRESSOR INC.Brownfields · 2600 ft
- Crossroads Convenence Store #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (S04-38102)Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- WOOD-FAB ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 02S02W25CBB 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Western Schools DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Dan CookUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Kent Electric ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- R.m. Brewer & Son, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Gail's PizzaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Parma GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parma'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 Parma.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parma, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Parma. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Parma
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 Parma average
Your land is one point inside Parma
Everything above resolves to Parma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 672 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 Parma Average
Parma Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Parma
- ●One soil character for all of Parma
- ●Frost dates read at Parma's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parma's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parma, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parma average
How we know this about Parma
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 Parma’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 Parma
When does frost risk typically end in Parma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parma typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Parma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parma typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parma sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 11, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parma?
The federal record around Parma runs heavier than most — 740 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (391), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 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 Parma?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parma's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parma'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 Parma’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Parma's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 672 acres it covers and 740 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Parma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 25 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 740 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parma, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parma's boundary and the 672 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parma's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Parma 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 Parma's 672 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parma's 672 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 672 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 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 Parma-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganParma sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides