Scottville, 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.
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 Scottville, 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 Scottville 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 Scottville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Scottville — the short answer
Scottville, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 954 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 954 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 Scottville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scottville's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scottville
Each reading below is measured for Scottville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScottville runs about 176 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
MeasuredScottville 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 Scottville is in
Scottville sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scottville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Scottville
Every plant below cleared Scottville's own zone 6a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scottville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Scottville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scottville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Former Healy Dodge PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- City Of ScottvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Scottville Antique MallUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ADMIRAL PETROLEUM COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- State Street EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Travis ThurowUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Farmers Petroleum-scottvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Scottville D.p.w.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Admiral Petroleum #91Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Wesco #28Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Former Sunoco Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Village Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scottville'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 Scottville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scottville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scottville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scottville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Scottville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Scottville
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 Scottville average
Your land is one point inside Scottville
Everything above resolves to Scottville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 954 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 city 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 Scottville Average
Scottville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Scottville
- ●One soil character for all of Scottville
- ●Frost dates read at Scottville's scale: May 1 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scottville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scottville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scottville, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scottville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scottville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scottville average
How we know this about Scottville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Scottville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Scottville
When does frost risk typically end in Scottville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scottville typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Scottville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scottville typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scottville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scottville sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 10, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scottville?
The federal record around Scottville is a meaningful one — 258 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Scottville?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scottville's scale — its 6a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scottville'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 Scottville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scottville's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 954 acres it covers and 258 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scottville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scottville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 24 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 258 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scottville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scottville's boundary and the 954 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scottville'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 Scottville's 954 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason 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 Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scottville's 954 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scottville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 954 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Scottville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganScottville sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.