Shoreham, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Shoreham, 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 Shoreham 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 Shoreham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shoreham — the short answer
Shoreham, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 375 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 375 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 Shoreham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shoreham's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shoreham
Each reading below is measured for Shoreham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShoreham runs about 209 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
MeasuredShoreham 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 Shoreham is in
Shoreham sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shoreham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berrien County.
What Grows in Shoreham
Every plant below cleared Shoreham's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shoreham?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
Documented around Shoreham
Survey cells within 31 miles of Shoreham checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shoreham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shoreham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Continental Can Co Usa, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CROWN BEVERAGE PACKAGING INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- DIVERSITY TOOL AND MOLD INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Dales Donut Factory/dale JewellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALSWORTH PUBLISHING COMPANY (FORMERLY IPC)Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- WALSWORTH PUBLISHING COMPANY (FORMERLY IPC)Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- Bendix Chassis & Brank ComponentUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ROBERT BOSCH CORPORATION CHASSIS DIVISIONSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- ROBERT BOSCH CORPORATION CHASSIS DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- ROBERT BOSCH CORPORATION CHASSIS DIVISIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Southshore Development CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- F P ROSBACK COBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shoreham'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 Shoreham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shoreham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shoreham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shoreham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shoreham — Superfund (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (50 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Shoreham
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 Shoreham average
Your land is one point inside Shoreham
Everything above resolves to Shoreham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 375 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 Shoreham Average
Shoreham Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Shoreham
- ●One soil character for all of Shoreham
- ●Frost dates read at Shoreham's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shoreham's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shoreham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shoreham, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shoreham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shoreham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shoreham average
How we know this about Shoreham
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 Shoreham’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 Shoreham
When does frost risk typically end in Shoreham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shoreham typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Shoreham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shoreham typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shoreham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shoreham sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 26, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shoreham?
The federal record around Shoreham is a meaningful one — 621 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (311), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Shoreham?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shoreham's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shoreham'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 Shoreham’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shoreham's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 375 acres it covers and 621 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shoreham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shoreham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 9 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 621 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shoreham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shoreham's boundary and the 375 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shoreham's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Shoreham 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 Shoreham's 375 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berrien County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berrien 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 Berrien County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shoreham's 375 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shoreham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 375 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Shoreham-wide figureread your own land →