Southfield, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Southfield, 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 Southfield 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 Southfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Southfield — the short answer
Southfield, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 17K 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 Southfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Southfield's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Southfield
Each reading below is measured for Southfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouthfield runs about 211 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
MeasuredSouthfield 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 Southfield is in
Southfield sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Southfield'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 Southfield
Every plant below cleared Southfield's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Southfield?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Southfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Southfield, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Southfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Southfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Southfield CO (M54130)Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 450 ft
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 800 ft
- O M Southfield Oil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Mobil Service Station #05qgkUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Southfield Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Elan VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- City Of Southfield-fire Hall #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Eaton CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EATON RESEARCH CENTERBrownfields · 2600 ft
- EATON RESEARCH CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY ACADEMYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Southfield'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 Southfield.
Total Sites
5,181
within ~10 miles of Southfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
52 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Southfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Southfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Southfield, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,672 sites within ~10 miles of Southfield. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Southfield
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 Southfield average
Your land is one point inside Southfield
Everything above resolves to Southfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Southfield Average
Southfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Southfield
- ●One soil character for all of Southfield
- ●Frost dates read at Southfield's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Southfield's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Southfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Southfield, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Southfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Southfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Southfield average
How we know this about Southfield
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 Southfield’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 Southfield
When does frost risk typically end in Southfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Southfield typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Southfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Southfield typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Southfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Southfield sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 24, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Southfield?
The federal record around Southfield is a meaningful one — 5,181 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,672), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Southfield?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Southfield's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Southfield'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 Southfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Southfield's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,810 acres it covers and 5,181 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Southfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Southfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 7 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,181 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Southfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Southfield's boundary and the 16,810 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Southfield 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 Southfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Southfield's 16,810 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 Southfield's 16,810 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Southfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,810 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 Southfield-wide figureread your own land →