Beal City, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beal City, 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 Beal City 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 Beal City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beal City — the short answer
Beal City, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Beal City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beal City's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beal City
Each reading below is measured for Beal City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeal City runs about 180 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
MeasuredBeal City 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 Beal City is in
Beal City sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beal City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Isabella County.
What Grows in Beal City
Every plant below cleared Beal City's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beal City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Beal City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beal City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ken N Krystal LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Tilmann HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- S T & H OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Beal City Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Philip Tilmann/tilmannUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DTE ENERGY/MICHCONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- T & M PartyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- THE SWAIN METER COMPANYBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Weber Brothers Sawmill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Weidman EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Daisy EmbreyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Jack's Service AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beal City'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 Beal City.
Total Sites
278
within ~10 miles of Beal City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beal City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beal City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beal City, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Beal City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Beal City
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 Beal City average
Your land is one point inside Beal City
Everything above resolves to Beal City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Beal City Average
Beal City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Beal City
- ●One soil character for all of Beal City
- ●Frost dates read at Beal City's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beal City's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beal City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beal City, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beal City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beal City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beal City average
How we know this about Beal City
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 Beal City’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 Beal City
When does frost risk typically end in Beal City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beal City typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Beal City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beal City typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beal City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beal City sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 8, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beal City?
The federal record around Beal City is a meaningful one — 278 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), 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 Beal City?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beal City's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beal City'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 Beal City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Beal City's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,568 acres it covers and 278 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beal City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beal City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 22 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 278 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beal City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beal City's boundary and the 2,568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beal City'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 Beal City's 2,568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Isabella County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Isabella 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 Isabella County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beal City's 2,568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beal City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,568 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 Beal City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganBeal City sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides