Port Austin, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Austin, 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 Port Austin 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 Port Austin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Austin — the short answer
Port Austin, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 632 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 632 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 6b is Port Austin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Austin's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Austin
Each reading below is measured for Port Austin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Austin runs about 204 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPort Austin sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Port Austin is in
Port Austin sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Austin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huron County.
What Grows in Port Austin
Every plant below cleared Port Austin's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Austin?
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 Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Port Austin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Austin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Port Austin ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- The Gas StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Rons Cars WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Port Austin State DockUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Bruce L DeshanoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SALVO TOOLBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Chets Marina IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Yarock Exc. & Asphalt PavingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Eagles MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 19N 13E 31AD 01 HURONNitrate · 0.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- North Huron Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Austin'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 Port Austin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Austin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Austin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Austin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Port Austin. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Port Austin
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 Port Austin average
Your land is one point inside Port Austin
Everything above resolves to Port Austin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 632 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 Port Austin Average
Port Austin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Port Austin
- ●One soil character for all of Port Austin
- ●Frost dates read at Port Austin's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Austin's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Austin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Austin, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Austin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Austin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Austin average
How we know this about Port Austin
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 Port Austin’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 Port Austin
When does frost risk typically end in Port Austin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Austin 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 Port Austin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Austin typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Austin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Austin sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 27, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Austin?
The federal record around Port Austin shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Port Austin?
From about Oct 11 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 Nov 10 (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 Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Austin's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Austin'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 Port Austin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Port Austin's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 632 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Austin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Austin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 10 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Austin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Austin's boundary and the 632 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Austin's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Austin's 632 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huron 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 Huron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Austin's 632 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Austin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 632 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 Port Austin-wide figureread your own land →
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