River Rouge, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 River Rouge, 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 River Rouge 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 River Rouge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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River Rouge — the short answer
River Rouge, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 River Rouge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against River Rouge's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in River Rouge
Each reading below is measured for River Rouge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiver Rouge runs about 218 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
MeasuredRiver Rouge 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 River Rouge is in
River Rouge sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at River Rouge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in River Rouge
Every plant below cleared River Rouge's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in River Rouge?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around River Rouge
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from River Rouge, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near River Rouge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of River Rouge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Huron Valley Steel CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MICHIGAN MARINE TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- MICHIGAN MARINE TERMINALBrownfields · 700 ft
- Michigan Marine TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WOLVERINE PIPELINE COMPANYBrownfields · 800 ft
- SHELL RIVER ROUGE LUBRICANTS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- SHELL RIVER ROUGE LUBRICANTS PLANTBrownfields · 850 ft
- Texaco Lubricants CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BUCKEYE TERMINALS, LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- BUCKEYE TERMINALS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- FRITZ PRODUCTSBrownfields · 950 ft
- FRITZ PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from River Rouge'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 River Rouge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of River Rouge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of River Rouge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around River Rouge, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 143 sites within ~10 miles of River Rouge. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 River Rouge
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 River Rouge average
Your land is one point inside River Rouge
Everything above resolves to River Rouge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 River Rouge Average
River Rouge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across River Rouge
- ●One soil character for all of River Rouge
- ●Frost dates read at River Rouge's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not River Rouge's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in River Rouge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in River Rouge, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that River Rouge averages can't show:
We read public map data around River Rouge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the River Rouge average
How we know this about River Rouge
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 River Rouge’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 River Rouge
When does frost risk typically end in River Rouge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in River Rouge typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in River Rouge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in River Rouge typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in River Rouge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, River Rouge sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 28, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in River Rouge?
The federal record around River Rouge runs heavier than most — 4,683 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,257), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 River Rouge?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at River Rouge's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of River Rouge'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 River Rouge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at River Rouge's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,708 acres it covers and 4,683 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- River Rouge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- River Rouge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 11 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,683 documented contamination sites on the federal record near River Rouge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- River Rouge's boundary and the 1,708 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at River Rouge's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of River Rougelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so River Rouge's 1,708 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among River Rouge's 1,708 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of River Rouge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,708 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 River Rouge-wide figureread your own land →
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