Beechwood, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beechwood, 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 Beechwood 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 Beechwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beechwood — the short answer
Beechwood, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Beechwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beechwood's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beechwood
Each reading below is measured for Beechwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeechwood runs about 212 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
MeasuredBeechwood 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 Beechwood is in
Beechwood sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beechwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ottawa County.
What Grows in Beechwood
Every plant below cleared Beechwood's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beechwood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Beechwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Beechwood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 61 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beechwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beechwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fogg Filler CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Lake Macatawa-launch SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- TRIDENT LABORATORIESBrownfields · 900 ft
- MSU BIOECONOMY INSTITUTEBrownfields · 900 ft
- MSU BIOECONOMY INSTITUTEToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- BOULDER SCIENTIFIC COMPANY HOLLANDBrownfields · 950 ft
- Parke-davis, Div. Of Warner LambUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BEECHWOOD CLEANERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- K. A. T. PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MURRAY CHRIS CRAFT CRUISERToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- RIVERSHORES BUILDING PRODUCTS, INC.Brownfields · 1500 ft
- HIL MAN AUTOMATIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beechwood'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 Beechwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beechwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beechwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beechwood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 110 sites within ~10 miles of Beechwood. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Beechwood
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 Beechwood average
Your land is one point inside Beechwood
Everything above resolves to Beechwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Beechwood Average
Beechwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Beechwood
- ●One soil character for all of Beechwood
- ●Frost dates read at Beechwood's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beechwood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beechwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beechwood, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beechwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beechwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beechwood average
How we know this about Beechwood
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 Beechwood’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 Beechwood
When does frost risk typically end in Beechwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beechwood typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Beechwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beechwood 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 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beechwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beechwood sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 26, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beechwood?
The federal record around Beechwood is a meaningful one — 791 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (348), 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 Beechwood?
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 Beechwood's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beechwood'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 Beechwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beechwood's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,160 acres it covers and 791 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beechwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beechwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 9 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 791 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beechwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beechwood's boundary and the 1,160 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beechwood's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Beechwood checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beechwood's 1,160 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ottawa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ottawa 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 Ottawa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beechwood's 1,160 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beechwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,160 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 Beechwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Growing region
Nearby growing guides