Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Pleasant Ridge, 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 Pleasant Ridge 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 Pleasant Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pleasant Ridge — the short answer
Pleasant Ridge, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 365 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 365 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 6b is Pleasant Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Ridge's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPleasant Ridge runs about 217 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPleasant Ridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Pleasant Ridge is in
Pleasant Ridge sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pleasant Ridge's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oakland County is mostly Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pleasant Ridge
Every plant below cleared Pleasant Ridge's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pleasant Ridge?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Pleasant Ridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 12 miles from Pleasant Ridge, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pleasant Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rowleys Lube Centers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Sunny's Food Mart IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DETROIT ZOOLOGICAL INSTITUTEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Detroit ZooUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Woodward Gateway LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- City Of Royal Oak Downtown DevUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- City Of Pleasant Ridge DpwUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- VALENITE INC CORP WALMET DIVToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- Royal Auto Repair IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hodge Systems, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Gte WalmetUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WM L BUTTON COBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pleasant Ridge'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 Pleasant Ridge.
Total Sites
6,432
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
111 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pleasant Ridge, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 111 sites within ~10 miles of Pleasant Ridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Pleasant Ridge
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 Pleasant Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Ridge
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 365 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 Pleasant Ridge Average
Pleasant Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pleasant Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Ridge's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Ridge's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Ridge average
How we know this about Pleasant Ridge
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 Pleasant Ridge’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 Pleasant Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Ridge typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Ridge typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Ridge sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 26, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Ridge?
The federal record around Pleasant Ridge is a meaningful one — 6,432 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,078), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pleasant Ridge?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Ridge's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant Ridge'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 Pleasant Ridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Ridge's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 365 acres it covers and 6,432 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pleasant Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 9 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,432 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Ridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Ridge's boundary and the 365 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pleasant Ridge sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pleasant Ridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Ridge's 365 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oakland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oakland 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 Oakland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Ridge's 365 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 365 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 Pleasant Ridge-wide figureread your own land →