Chatham, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chatham, 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 Chatham 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 Chatham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chatham — the short answer
Chatham, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- 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
- ~147
- 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 5a is Chatham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chatham's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chatham
Each reading below is measured for Chatham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChatham runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChatham 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 Chatham is in
Chatham sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Chatham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alger County.
What Grows in Chatham
Every plant below cleared Chatham's own zone 5a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chatham?
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 Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Chatham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chatham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Freds ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Kassels-Rumely StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SUPERIOR CENTRAL SCHOOLSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Rock River-limeston Twp S.e.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Unity Co-opUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Elmers ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- A & M ContractingUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Chatham Corners Store IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Limestone General Store Home of Superior Treats LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- COUNTY OF ALGER ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- 46N 20W 08CACC 01 ALGER CO (USFS CPGD)Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chatham'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 Chatham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chatham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chatham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chatham, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Chatham. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chatham
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 Chatham average
Your land is one point inside Chatham
Everything above resolves to Chatham 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 Chatham Average
Chatham Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Chatham
- ●One soil character for all of Chatham
- ●Frost dates read at Chatham's scale: May 15 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chatham's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chatham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chatham, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chatham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chatham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chatham average
How we know this about Chatham
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 Chatham’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 Chatham
When does frost risk typically end in Chatham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chatham typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Chatham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chatham 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 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chatham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chatham sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 25, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chatham?
The federal record around Chatham is light — 28 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Chatham?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Chatham rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Chatham's scale — its 5a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chatham'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 Chatham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chatham's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,571 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chatham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chatham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Oct 9 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chatham, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chatham's boundary and the 1,571 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chatham'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 Chatham's 1,571 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alger County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alger 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 Alger County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chatham's 1,571 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chatham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,571 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 Chatham-wide figureread your own land →
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Growing region
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