Mears, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mears, 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 Mears 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 Mears — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mears — the short answer
Mears, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 728 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 728 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 Mears's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mears's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mears
Each reading below is measured for Mears itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMears runs about 182 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
MeasuredMears 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 Mears is in
Mears sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mears's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oceana County.
What Grows in Mears
Every plant below cleared Mears's own zone 6a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mears?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Mears
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mears. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Silver Lake State Park - DnrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Fenton ReceivingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Mears Auto Service (former)Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- GRAY AND COMPANY BRININGToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- Wilson's General Store LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Gte North IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MI DEPT TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE - S09/S18-64015Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY OF MICHIGAN LLCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- Hart X-Way EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HART X WAYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mears'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 Mears.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Mears
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mears
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mears
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 Mears
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 Mears average
Your land is one point inside Mears
Everything above resolves to Mears as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 728 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 Mears Average
Mears Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mears
- ●One soil character for all of Mears
- ●Frost dates read at Mears's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mears's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mears
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mears, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mears averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mears — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mears average
How we know this about Mears
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 Mears’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 Mears
When does frost risk typically end in Mears?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mears typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Mears?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mears typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mears?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mears sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 14, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mears?
The federal record around Mears is a meaningful one — 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), 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 Mears?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mears's scale — its 6a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mears'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 Mears’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mears's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 728 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mears's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mears's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 28 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mears, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mears's boundary and the 728 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mears'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 Mears's 728 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 Mears's 728 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mears you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 728 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 Mears-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMears sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.