Freeport, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Freeport, 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 Freeport 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 Freeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Freeport — the short answer
Freeport, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 506 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 506 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 Freeport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freeport's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Freeport
Each reading below is measured for Freeport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFreeport runs about 186 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
MeasuredFreeport 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 Freeport is in
Freeport sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Freeport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barry County.
What Grows in Freeport
Every plant below cleared Freeport's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Freeport?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 25 — 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 Freeport
Survey cells within 31 miles of Freeport checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Freeport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Freeport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Munn Mfg.co.Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Freeport General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 04N09W01AA 01 FREEPORTNitrate · 1700 ft
- Freeport Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Buskirk Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 04N08W06CB-02 FREEPORTNitrate · 2200 ft
- MUNN MANUFACTURING COMPANY INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- FREEPORT FRAME AND COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Ernest DippUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BROOK VIEW DAIRY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- Arnith StahlUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PARAGON MODEL SHOP INCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freeport'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 Freeport.
Total Sites
245
within ~10 miles of Freeport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Freeport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Freeport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freeport, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Freeport. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Freeport
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 Freeport average
Your land is one point inside Freeport
Everything above resolves to Freeport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 506 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 Freeport Average
Freeport Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Freeport
- ●One soil character for all of Freeport
- ●Frost dates read at Freeport's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freeport's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Freeport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freeport, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freeport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freeport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freeport average
How we know this about Freeport
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 Freeport’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 Freeport
When does frost risk typically end in Freeport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freeport 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 Freeport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Freeport typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Freeport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freeport sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 11, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freeport?
The federal record around Freeport is a meaningful one — 245 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Freeport?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Freeport's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freeport'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 Freeport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Freeport's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 506 acres it covers and 245 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freeport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freeport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 25 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 245 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Freeport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Freeport's boundary and the 506 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Freeport's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Freeport 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 Freeport's 506 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barry 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 Barry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Freeport's 506 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Freeport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 506 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Freeport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganFreeport sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides