Melvin, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Melvin, 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 Melvin 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 Melvin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melvin — the short answer
Melvin, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 621 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 621 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 Melvin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melvin's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melvin
Each reading below is measured for Melvin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelvin runs about 179 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
MeasuredMelvin 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 Melvin is in
Melvin sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melvin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sanilac County.
What Grows in Melvin
Every plant below cleared Melvin's own zone 6a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melvin?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Melvin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Melvin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Melvin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melvin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Adam NitschUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SUS151-26Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- Lentners Bulk Milk ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BURNS TRACTOR SVCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- AG151-26Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Kenneth D KohlerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Chucks General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- PATRIOT SENSORS & CONTROLSBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- PATRIOT SENSORS & CONTROLSToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
- Christian Memorial CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Redall Ind IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Sacred Heart ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melvin'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 Melvin.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Melvin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melvin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melvin
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 Melvin
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 Melvin average
Your land is one point inside Melvin
Everything above resolves to Melvin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 621 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 Melvin Average
Melvin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Melvin
- ●One soil character for all of Melvin
- ●Frost dates read at Melvin's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melvin's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melvin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melvin, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melvin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melvin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melvin average
How we know this about Melvin
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 Melvin’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 Melvin
When does frost risk typically end in Melvin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melvin typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Melvin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melvin typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melvin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melvin sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 7, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melvin?
The federal record around Melvin shows 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Melvin?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melvin's scale — its 6a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melvin'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 Melvin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Melvin's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 621 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melvin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melvin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 21 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melvin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melvin's boundary and the 621 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melvin's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Melvin 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 Melvin's 621 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sanilac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sanilac 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 Sanilac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melvin's 621 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melvin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 621 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Melvin-wide figureread your own land →
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