Homer, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Homer, 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 Homer 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 Homer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Homer — the short answer
Homer, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 893 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 893 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 Homer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Homer's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Homer
Each reading below is measured for Homer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHomer runs about 190 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
MeasuredHomer 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 Homer is in
Homer sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Homer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Homer
Every plant below cleared Homer's own zone 6a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Homer?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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 Homer
Survey cells within 31 miles of Homer checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Homer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Homer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Homer ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Charles ClayUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Alltel Michigan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Hcs Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Public Works Storage BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Irvins HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Homer RadiatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Homer Ps MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Cornerstone ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Public Works GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Public Works Storage BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Homer'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 Homer.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Homer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Homer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Homer, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Homer — Superfund (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Homer
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 Homer average
Your land is one point inside Homer
Everything above resolves to Homer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 893 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 Homer Average
Homer Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Homer
- ●One soil character for all of Homer
- ●Frost dates read at Homer's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Homer's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Homer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Homer, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Homer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Homer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Homer average
How we know this about Homer
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 Homer’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 Homer
When does frost risk typically end in Homer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Homer typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Homer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Homer 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Homer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Homer sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 13, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Homer?
The federal record around Homer is a meaningful one — 253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), 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 Homer?
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 Homer's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Homer'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 Homer’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Homer's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 893 acres it covers and 253 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Homer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Homer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 27 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Homer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Homer's boundary and the 893 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Homer's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Homer 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 Homer's 893 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Homer's 893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Homer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 893 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 Homer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganHomer sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides