Pigeon, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pigeon, 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 Pigeon 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 Pigeon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pigeon — the short answer
Pigeon, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 509 acres of town.
- 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)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 509 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 Pigeon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pigeon's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pigeon
Each reading below is measured for Pigeon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPigeon runs about 196 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
MeasuredPigeon 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 Pigeon is in
Pigeon sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pigeon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huron County.
What Grows in Pigeon
Every plant below cleared Pigeon's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pigeon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 2 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Pigeon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pigeon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MdotUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Pigeon Station-truck Repair ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Forward Enterprise IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Brinks Transfer IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PEOPLES OIL & GAS COBrownfields · 600 ft
- Pigeon DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Elkton/pigeon/bayport Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Cooperative Elevator CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Pigeon Motor Sales, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Elkton ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COOPERATIVE ELEVATOR COMPANYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Tjs SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pigeon'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 Pigeon.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Pigeon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pigeon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pigeon
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Pigeon
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 Pigeon average
Your land is one point inside Pigeon
Everything above resolves to Pigeon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 509 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 Pigeon Average
Pigeon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pigeon
- ●One soil character for all of Pigeon
- ●Frost dates read at Pigeon's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pigeon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pigeon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pigeon, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pigeon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pigeon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pigeon average
How we know this about Pigeon
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 Pigeon’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 Pigeon
When does frost risk typically end in Pigeon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pigeon 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 Pigeon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pigeon typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pigeon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pigeon sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 19, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pigeon?
The federal record around Pigeon shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), 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 Pigeon?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pigeon's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pigeon'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 Pigeon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pigeon's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 509 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pigeon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pigeon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 2 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pigeon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pigeon's boundary and the 509 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pigeon's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pigeon's 509 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huron 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 Huron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pigeon's 509 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pigeon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 509 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 Pigeon-wide figureread your own land →
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