Ypsilanti, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ypsilanti, 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 Ypsilanti 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 Ypsilanti — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ypsilanti — the short answer
Ypsilanti, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Ypsilanti's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ypsilanti's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ypsilanti
Each reading below is measured for Ypsilanti itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYpsilanti runs about 193 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
MeasuredYpsilanti 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 Ypsilanti is in
Ypsilanti sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ypsilanti's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washtenaw County.
What Grows in Ypsilanti
Every plant below cleared Ypsilanti's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ypsilanti?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Ypsilanti
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Ypsilanti, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ypsilanti
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ypsilanti. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wafic KashamUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Central Fire StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TROJAN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Aata Transit SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Eastern Michigan UniversityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Domino's Pizza (Leesee)Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CITY OF YPSILANTI - FOREST AVE BR AT HURON RBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Raymond ViersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Knight Enterprises, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KNIGHT ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Vincent H BuckUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Former Ypsilanti FirehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ypsilanti'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 Ypsilanti.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ypsilanti
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ypsilanti
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ypsilanti, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 891 sites within ~10 miles of Ypsilanti. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ypsilanti
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 Ypsilanti average
Your land is one point inside Ypsilanti
Everything above resolves to Ypsilanti as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Ypsilanti Average
Ypsilanti Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ypsilanti
- ●One soil character for all of Ypsilanti
- ●Frost dates read at Ypsilanti's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ypsilanti's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ypsilanti
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ypsilanti, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ypsilanti averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ypsilanti — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ypsilanti average
How we know this about Ypsilanti
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 Ypsilanti’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 Ypsilanti
When does frost risk typically end in Ypsilanti?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ypsilanti typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Ypsilanti?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ypsilanti typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ypsilanti?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ypsilanti sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 13, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ypsilanti?
The federal record around Ypsilanti is a meaningful one — 1,732 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (891), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ypsilanti?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ypsilanti's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ypsilanti'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 Ypsilanti’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ypsilanti's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,748 acres it covers and 1,732 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ypsilanti's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ypsilanti's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 27 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,732 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ypsilanti, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ypsilanti's boundary and the 2,748 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ypsilanti's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ypsilantilydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ypsilanti's 2,748 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washtenaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washtenaw 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 Washtenaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ypsilanti's 2,748 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ypsilanti you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,748 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 Ypsilanti-wide figureread your own land →
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