Stockbridge, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Stockbridge, 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 Stockbridge 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 Stockbridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Stockbridge — the short answer
Stockbridge, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 962 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 962 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 Stockbridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stockbridge's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stockbridge
Each reading below is measured for Stockbridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStockbridge runs about 187 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
MeasuredStockbridge 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 Stockbridge is in
Stockbridge sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Stockbridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ingham County.
What Grows in Stockbridge
Every plant below cleared Stockbridge's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stockbridge?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Stockbridge
Survey cells within 31 miles of Stockbridge checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Stockbridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stockbridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Village Of StockbridgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Southern Boy Take OutUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Caskey Funeral Home, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- STOCKBRIDGE AUTO CARE INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Mugg & BoppsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PROPERTY HOLDING TWOBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Mdot Row M-52/m106Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SPRINGER BROTHERS CHILI COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MINIX PRINTING INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Amoco Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Alltel Michigan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Stephen HeotakyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stockbridge'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 Stockbridge.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Stockbridge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stockbridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stockbridge
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Stockbridge
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 Stockbridge average
Your land is one point inside Stockbridge
Everything above resolves to Stockbridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 962 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 Stockbridge Average
Stockbridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Stockbridge
- ●One soil character for all of Stockbridge
- ●Frost dates read at Stockbridge's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stockbridge's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stockbridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stockbridge, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stockbridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stockbridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stockbridge average
How we know this about Stockbridge
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 Stockbridge’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 Stockbridge
When does frost risk typically end in Stockbridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stockbridge typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Stockbridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stockbridge typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stockbridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stockbridge sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 10, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stockbridge?
The federal record around Stockbridge shows 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Stockbridge?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stockbridge's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stockbridge'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 Stockbridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Stockbridge's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 962 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stockbridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stockbridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 24 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stockbridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stockbridge's boundary and the 962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stockbridge's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Stockbridge 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 Stockbridge's 962 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ingham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ingham 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 Ingham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stockbridge's 962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stockbridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 962 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 Stockbridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganStockbridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides