Baldwin, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Baldwin, 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 Baldwin 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 Baldwin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baldwin — the short answer
Baldwin, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 813 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 813 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 5b is Baldwin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baldwin's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baldwin
Each reading below is measured for Baldwin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaldwin runs about 155 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
MeasuredBaldwin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Baldwin is in
Baldwin sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Baldwin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Baldwin
Every plant below cleared Baldwin's own zone 5b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baldwin?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Baldwin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baldwin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Baldwin QuickmartUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- PATTIE DRUG INCBrownfields · 350 ft
- DnrUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Wesco #38Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Genes ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- GSA Petrol LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Village Of BaldwinUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lake County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lake County Sheriff DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Usda Forest Serv Baldwin DistricUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- USDA USFS R09 BALDWIN ADMINISTRATIVE SITEBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baldwin'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 Baldwin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baldwin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baldwin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baldwin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Baldwin. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Baldwin
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 Baldwin average
Your land is one point inside Baldwin
Everything above resolves to Baldwin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 813 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 Baldwin Average
Baldwin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Baldwin
- ●One soil character for all of Baldwin
- ●Frost dates read at Baldwin's scale: May 8 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baldwin's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baldwin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baldwin, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baldwin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baldwin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baldwin average
How we know this about Baldwin
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 Baldwin’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 Baldwin
When does frost risk typically end in Baldwin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwin typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Baldwin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwin typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baldwin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baldwin sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 26, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baldwin?
The federal record around Baldwin is a meaningful one — 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), 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 Baldwin?
From about Sep 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 Oct 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 Oct 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baldwin's scale — its 5b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baldwin'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 Baldwin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baldwin's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 813 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baldwin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baldwin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 10 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baldwin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baldwin's boundary and the 813 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baldwin's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baldwin's 813 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baldwin's 813 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baldwin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 813 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 Baldwin-wide figureread your own land →
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