Roscommon, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Roscommon, 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 Roscommon 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 Roscommon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roscommon — the short answer
Roscommon, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Roscommon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roscommon's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roscommon
Each reading below is measured for Roscommon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoscommon runs about 151 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
MeasuredRoscommon sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Roscommon is in
Roscommon sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Roscommon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roscommon County.
What Grows in Roscommon
Every plant below cleared Roscommon's own zone 5a and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roscommon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Roscommon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roscommon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HART FORD LINCOLN INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- LEAR CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Roscommon Manufacturing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (S15-72061)Brownfields · 2200 ft
- Jansen Plumbing & Heating IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LEAR ROSCOMMONToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- LEAR ROSCOMMONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Itt Hancock Roscommon PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Roscommon GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COUNTY OF ROSCOMMON ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Roscommon County Sheriffs DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Wuexfels Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roscommon'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 Roscommon.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Roscommon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roscommon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roscommon
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Roscommon
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 Roscommon average
Your land is one point inside Roscommon
Everything above resolves to Roscommon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Roscommon Average
Roscommon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Roscommon
- ●One soil character for all of Roscommon
- ●Frost dates read at Roscommon's scale: May 11 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roscommon's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roscommon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roscommon, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roscommon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roscommon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roscommon average
How we know this about Roscommon
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 Roscommon’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 Roscommon
When does frost risk typically end in Roscommon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roscommon typically lands around May 11, 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 Jun 1.
When is the first frost in Roscommon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roscommon typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roscommon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roscommon sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 25, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roscommon?
The federal record around Roscommon is a meaningful one — 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Roscommon?
From about Sep 9 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 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 Oct 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roscommon's scale — its 5a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roscommon'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 Roscommon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Roscommon's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,054 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roscommon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roscommon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 9 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roscommon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roscommon's boundary and the 1,054 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roscommon's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roscommon's 1,054 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roscommon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roscommon 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 Roscommon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roscommon's 1,054 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roscommon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,054 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Roscommon-wide figureread your own land →