Scotts, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scotts, 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 Scotts 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 Scotts — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Scotts — the short answer
Scotts, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 155 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 155 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 Scotts's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotts's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scotts
Each reading below is measured for Scotts itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScotts runs about 201 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
MeasuredScotts 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 Scotts is in
Scotts sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scotts's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kalamazoo County.
What Grows in Scotts
Every plant below cleared Scotts's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scotts?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Scotts
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Scotts, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scotts
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scotts. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Days Union 76Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Virgil D. RonkenUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 03S 10W 24ABCC01 KALAMAZOO CO (K-13)Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 03S 09W 31ABBB01 KALAMAZOO CO (K-15)Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- David & Linda MastervichUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 03S 10W 16DCCC01 KALAMAZOO CO (K-12)Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- Avalon FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Seyberts ExcavatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Battle Creek Farm Bureau Assoc.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- WOLVERINE PIPELINE COMPANYBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- Robert FrazeUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Climax-scotts Community SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotts'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 Scotts.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scotts
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scotts
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 Scotts
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 Scotts average
Your land is one point inside Scotts
Everything above resolves to Scotts as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 155 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 Scotts Average
Scotts Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Scotts
- ●One soil character for all of Scotts
- ●Frost dates read at Scotts's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotts's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scotts
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotts, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotts averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotts — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotts average
How we know this about Scotts
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 Scotts’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 Scotts
When does frost risk typically end in Scotts?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotts typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Scotts?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scotts typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scotts?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotts sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 19, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotts?
The federal record around Scotts is a meaningful one — 742 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (333), 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 Scotts?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scotts's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotts'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 Scotts’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Scotts's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 155 acres it covers and 742 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotts's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scotts's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 2 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 742 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scotts, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scotts's boundary and the 155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scotts's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Scottslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scotts's 155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kalamazoo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kalamazoo 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 Kalamazoo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scotts's 155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scotts you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 155 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 Scotts-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganScotts sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.