Deckerville, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Deckerville, 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 Deckerville 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 Deckerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deckerville — the short answer
Deckerville, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 798 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 798 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 Deckerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deckerville's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deckerville
Each reading below is measured for Deckerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeckerville runs about 188 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
MeasuredDeckerville 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 Deckerville is in
Deckerville sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deckerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sanilac County.
What Grows in Deckerville
Every plant below cleared Deckerville's own zone 6a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deckerville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Deckerville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Deckerville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 69 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Deckerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deckerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Clements Mfg. Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Speedway #8398Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Main Street C Store LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Wayne D. SalowitzUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WEST END COLLISIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Deckerville Plastics CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DOTT ACQUISITIONS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- Deckerville Building Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KLATY GAS AND OILBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Klaty Gas & OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Dott Ind IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOTT INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deckerville'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 Deckerville.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Deckerville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deckerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deckerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deckerville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 81 sites within ~10 miles of Deckerville. 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 Deckerville
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 Deckerville average
Your land is one point inside Deckerville
Everything above resolves to Deckerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 798 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 Deckerville Average
Deckerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Deckerville
- ●One soil character for all of Deckerville
- ●Frost dates read at Deckerville's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deckerville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deckerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deckerville, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deckerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deckerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deckerville average
How we know this about Deckerville
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 Deckerville’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 Deckerville
When does frost risk typically end in Deckerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deckerville typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Deckerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deckerville 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 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deckerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deckerville sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 13, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deckerville?
The federal record around Deckerville is a meaningful one — 127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), 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 Deckerville?
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 Deckerville's scale — its 6a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deckerville'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 Deckerville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Deckerville's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 798 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deckerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deckerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 27 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deckerville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deckerville's boundary and the 798 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deckerville's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Deckerville 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 Deckerville's 798 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sanilac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sanilac 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 Sanilac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deckerville's 798 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deckerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 798 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 Deckerville-wide figureread your own land →
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