Ruby, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Ruby, 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 Ruby 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 Ruby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ruby — the short answer
Ruby, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6a is Ruby's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ruby's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ruby
Each reading below is measured for Ruby itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRuby runs about 194 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
MeasuredRuby 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 Ruby is in
Ruby sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ruby's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Clair County.
What Grows in Ruby
Every plant below cleared Ruby's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ruby?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Ruby
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ruby checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ruby
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ruby. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 07N15E25ABA 01 MCDONALDSNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 07N15E01DAD 01 DENEWETHNitrate · 2.7 mi
- Rhonda & Johns Corner StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Hess Asphalt IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- BROWNING FERRIS INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- 07N15E15DDC 01 JANKOWSKYNitrate · 3.3 mi
- MICH BELL TELEPHONEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (RO5, R06-77023)Brownfields · 4.0 mi
- St. Clair County Medical CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 06N15E01AAB 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- Avoca Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- District 2 WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ruby'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 Ruby.
Total Sites
414
within ~10 miles of Ruby
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ruby
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ruby
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ruby, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ruby — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ruby
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 Ruby average
Your land is one point inside Ruby
Everything above resolves to Ruby 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 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 Ruby Average
Ruby Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ruby
- ●One soil character for all of Ruby
- ●Frost dates read at Ruby's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ruby's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ruby
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ruby, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ruby averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ruby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ruby average
How we know this about Ruby
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 Ruby’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 Ruby
When does frost risk typically end in Ruby?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ruby typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ruby?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ruby typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ruby?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ruby sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 16, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ruby?
The federal record around Ruby is a meaningful one — 414 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.7 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 Ruby?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ruby's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ruby'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 Ruby’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ruby's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,401 acres it covers and 414 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ruby's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ruby's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 30 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 414 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ruby, the closest Nitrate record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ruby's boundary and the 2,401 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ruby's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ruby 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 Ruby's 2,401 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Clair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Clair 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 St. Clair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ruby's 2,401 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ruby you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,401 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.7 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 Ruby-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganRuby sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides