Lamont, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lamont, 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 Lamont 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 Lamont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lamont — the short answer
Lamont, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- 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
- ~191
- 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 6a is Lamont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lamont's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lamont
Each reading below is measured for Lamont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLamont runs about 191 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
MeasuredLamont 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 Lamont is in
Lamont sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lamont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ottawa County.
What Grows in Lamont
Every plant below cleared Lamont's own zone 6a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lamont?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (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.
Documented around Lamont
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lamont checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 73 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lamont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lamont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 07N 13W 07BC 01 OTTAWA CO (LAFLEUR N)Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- Kloosterhouse EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MARVS REPAIR SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Buth Greenvale Farm IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LANGELAND FARMSCAFO · 2.0 mi
- David GishUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- OTTAWA COUNTY ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Van Andel PropaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- NICHOLAS PLASTICS L.L.C.Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- Prime Time RVUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ANTERIOR QUEST LLCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- PRIME DESIGN INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lamont'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 Lamont.
Total Sites
471
within ~10 miles of Lamont
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lamont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lamont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lamont, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 237 sites within ~10 miles of Lamont. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Lamont
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 Lamont average
Your land is one point inside Lamont
Everything above resolves to Lamont 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 Lamont Average
Lamont Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Lamont
- ●One soil character for all of Lamont
- ●Frost dates read at Lamont's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lamont's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lamont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lamont, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lamont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lamont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lamont average
How we know this about Lamont
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 Lamont’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 Lamont
When does frost risk typically end in Lamont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lamont typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lamont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lamont 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 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lamont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lamont sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 15, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lamont?
The federal record around Lamont is a meaningful one — 471 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (237), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lamont?
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 Lamont's scale — its 6a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lamont'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 Lamont’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lamont's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,772 acres it covers and 471 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lamont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lamont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 29 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 471 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lamont, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lamont's boundary and the 1,772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lamont's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lamont 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 Lamont's 1,772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ottawa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ottawa 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 Ottawa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lamont's 1,772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lamont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lamont-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Growing region
Nearby growing guides