Bear Lake, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bear Lake, 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 Bear Lake 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 Bear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bear Lake — the short answer
Bear Lake, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 198 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 198 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 Bear Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Lake's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear Lake
Each reading below is measured for Bear Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBear Lake runs about 177 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
MeasuredBear Lake 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 Bear Lake is in
Bear Lake sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bear Lake'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 Bear Lake
Every plant below cleared Bear Lake's own zone 6a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bear Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Bear Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bear Lake SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Dr Ryckman OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BLARNEY CASTLE OIL COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Blarney Castle #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Coloma Frozen Foods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bear Lake TwpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Thelma SchnipkeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Saddle Up Gas & GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Cook's 66 ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- RECAPToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- REMANUFACTURED ELECTRODE CAP INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- Lue Ellen BucknerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear Lake'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 Bear Lake.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Bear Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bear Lake, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Bear Lake. 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 Bear Lake
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 Bear Lake average
Your land is one point inside Bear Lake
Everything above resolves to Bear Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 198 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 Bear Lake Average
Bear Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bear Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Bear Lake's scale: May 4 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Lake, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Lake average
How we know this about Bear Lake
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 Bear Lake’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 Bear Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Lake typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Bear Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Lake typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bear Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear Lake sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 14, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Lake?
The federal record around Bear Lake is a meaningful one — 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), 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 Bear Lake?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bear Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear Lake'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 Bear Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bear Lake's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 198 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bear Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 28 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear Lake's boundary and the 198 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bear Lake 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 Bear Lake's 198 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 Bear Lake's 198 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 198 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 Bear Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganBear Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides