Hart, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Hart, 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 Hart 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 Hart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hart — the short answer
Hart, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Hart's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hart's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hart
Each reading below is measured for Hart itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHart runs about 184 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
MeasuredHart 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 Hart is in
Hart sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hart's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oceana County.
What Grows in Hart
Every plant below cleared Hart's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hart?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Hart
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hart. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Farmers Petroleum Co-op IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Hart Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Daves Party StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Stokely USA IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Curtis Greenleaf NurseryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Settler & Duncan Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Greiner Farms, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Richard J. MalburgUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Hart Brand TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Hart EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BLARNEY CASTLE OIL COBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Amoco Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hart'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 Hart.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Hart
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hart
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hart
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 Hart
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 Hart average
Your land is one point inside Hart
Everything above resolves to Hart as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Hart Average
Hart Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hart
- ●One soil character for all of Hart
- ●Frost dates read at Hart's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hart's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hart
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hart, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hart averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hart average
How we know this about Hart
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 Hart’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 Hart
When does frost risk typically end in Hart?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hart typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Hart?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hart typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hart?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hart sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 15, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hart?
The federal record around Hart is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), 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 Hart?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hart's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hart'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 Hart’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hart's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,145 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hart's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hart's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 29 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hart, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hart's boundary and the 1,145 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hart's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hart's 1,145 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oceana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oceana 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 Oceana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hart's 1,145 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hart you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,145 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 Hart-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganHart sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides