Bay Shore, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bay Shore, 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 Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bay Shore — the short answer
Bay Shore, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 995 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 995 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 Bay Shore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bay Shore's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bay Shore
Each reading below is measured for Bay Shore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBay Shore runs about 203 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
MeasuredBay Shore 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 Bay Shore is in
Bay Shore sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bay Shore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charlevoix County.
What Grows in Bay Shore
Every plant below cleared Bay Shore's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bay Shore?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Bay Shore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bay Shore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Erber-mckeown Ford, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Crown EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LITTLE TRAVERSE BAY BAND MURRAY ROAD SITEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Bayshore Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WOLVERINE POWER COOPERATIVE INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- JIM & DOROTHY INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- BAY SHORE STEEL WORKS LLCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Voc Ed Auto ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- H AND D INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- TURCOTT PAINTING AND DECORATINGBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CMS ENERGY CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- CMS LAND COMPANYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bay Shore'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 Bay Shore.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bay Shore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bay Shore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bay Shore, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Bay Shore. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Bay Shore
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 Bay Shore average
Your land is one point inside Bay Shore
Everything above resolves to Bay Shore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 995 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 Bay Shore Average
Bay Shore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bay Shore
- ●One soil character for all of Bay Shore
- ●Frost dates read at Bay Shore's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bay Shore's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bay Shore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bay Shore, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bay Shore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bay Shore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bay Shore average
How we know this about Bay Shore
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 Bay Shore’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 Bay Shore
When does frost risk typically end in Bay Shore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bay Shore typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Bay Shore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bay Shore 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bay Shore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bay Shore sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 26, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bay Shore?
The federal record around Bay Shore is a meaningful one — 281 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (168), 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 Bay Shore?
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 Bay Shore's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bay Shore'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 Bay Shore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bay Shore's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 995 acres it covers and 281 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bay Shore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bay Shore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 9 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 281 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bay Shore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bay Shore's boundary and the 995 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bay Shore's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bay Shore's 995 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charlevoix County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charlevoix 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 Charlevoix County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bay Shore's 995 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bay Shore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 995 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 Bay Shore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganBay Shore sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides