Bellaire, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Bellaire, 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 Bellaire 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 Bellaire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bellaire — the short answer
Bellaire, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- 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
- ~168
- 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 5b is Bellaire's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellaire's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellaire
Each reading below is measured for Bellaire itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellaire runs about 168 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
MeasuredBellaire 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 Bellaire is in
Bellaire sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellaire's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Antrim County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bellaire
Every plant below cleared Bellaire's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellaire?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Bellaire
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellaire. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bellaire Food ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Lloyd MahoneyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Riverside MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Village Of Bellaire D.p.w.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bellaire EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DALE SNOOKS AS ONE ON ONE INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Bellaire Field OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Bellaire Bay MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Woodland Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Vacant BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Sheriff DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellaire'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 Bellaire.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellaire
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellaire
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellaire, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Bellaire. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Bellaire
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 Bellaire average
Your land is one point inside Bellaire
Everything above resolves to Bellaire 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 Bellaire Average
Bellaire Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Bellaire
- ●One soil character for all of Bellaire
- ●Frost dates read at Bellaire's scale: May 7 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellaire's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellaire
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellaire, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellaire averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellaire — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellaire average
How we know this about Bellaire
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 Bellaire’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 Bellaire
When does frost risk typically end in Bellaire?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellaire typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Bellaire?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellaire 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 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellaire?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellaire sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Oct 8, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellaire?
The federal record around Bellaire is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bellaire?
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 Bellaire's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellaire'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 Bellaire’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellaire's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,221 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellaire's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellaire's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 22 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellaire, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellaire's boundary and the 1,221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bellaire 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 Bellaire's 1,221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Antrim County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Antrim 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 Antrim County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellaire's 1,221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellaire you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bellaire-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganBellaire sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides