Arcadia, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arcadia, 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 Arcadia 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 Arcadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arcadia — the short answer
Arcadia, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 383 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 383 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 Arcadia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arcadia's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arcadia
Each reading below is measured for Arcadia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArcadia runs about 196 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
MeasuredArcadia 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 Arcadia is in
Arcadia sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arcadia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Manistee County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arcadia
Every plant below cleared Arcadia's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arcadia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (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. 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 Arcadia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arcadia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- James BurtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Arcadia MarineUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Arcadia Veterans Memoria MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Arcadia Gambles HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- McArthur ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ARCADIA MARINEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Miles C GerberdingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RVP DEVELOPMENTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Benzie AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Robert A. MichaelUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- James F. PlowmanUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- CORNILLIE CONCRETE PLANT 04Toxics Release Inventory · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arcadia'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 Arcadia.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arcadia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arcadia, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Arcadia. 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 Arcadia
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 Arcadia average
Your land is one point inside Arcadia
Everything above resolves to Arcadia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 383 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 Arcadia Average
Arcadia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Arcadia
- ●One soil character for all of Arcadia
- ●Frost dates read at Arcadia's scale: Apr 27 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arcadia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arcadia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arcadia, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arcadia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arcadia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arcadia average
How we know this about Arcadia
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 Arcadia’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 Arcadia
When does frost risk typically end in Arcadia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Arcadia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arcadia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arcadia sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 26, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arcadia?
The federal record around Arcadia shows 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Arcadia?
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 Arcadia's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arcadia'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 Arcadia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arcadia's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 383 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arcadia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arcadia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Nov 9 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arcadia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arcadia's boundary and the 383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arcadia sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arcadia's 383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Manistee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Manistee 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 Manistee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arcadia's 383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arcadia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 383 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 Arcadia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganArcadia sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.