Bessemer, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bessemer, 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 Bessemer 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 Bessemer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bessemer — the short answer
Bessemer, Michigan: USDA zone 4b, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 4b is Bessemer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bessemer's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bessemer
Each reading below is measured for Bessemer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBessemer runs about 151 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
MeasuredBessemer sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Bessemer is in
Bessemer sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Bessemer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gogebic County.
What Grows in Bessemer
Every plant below cleared Bessemer's own zone 4b and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bessemer?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Bessemer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bessemer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF BESSEMERBrownfields · 650 ft
- Steiger Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NORTHWESTERN AUTO COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Roy W ContrattoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BP StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BESSEMER AUTO COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- BESSEMER AREA SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Bessemer Auto CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- COUNTRY CORNER SERVICEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Gogebic County Sheriff DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BESSEMER SMALL ENGINEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Bessemer GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bessemer'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 Bessemer.
Total Sites
269
within ~10 miles of Bessemer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bessemer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bessemer
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Bessemer
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 Bessemer average
Your land is one point inside Bessemer
Everything above resolves to Bessemer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Bessemer Average
Bessemer Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Bessemer
- ●One soil character for all of Bessemer
- ●Frost dates read at Bessemer's scale: May 8 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bessemer's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bessemer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bessemer, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bessemer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bessemer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bessemer average
How we know this about Bessemer
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bessemer’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Bessemer
When does frost risk typically end in Bessemer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bessemer typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Bessemer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bessemer typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bessemer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bessemer sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 22, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bessemer?
The federal record around Bessemer is a meaningful one — 269 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Brownfields 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 Bessemer?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bessemer's scale — its 4b band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bessemer'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 Bessemer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bessemer's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,519 acres it covers and 269 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bessemer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bessemer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 6 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 269 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bessemer, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bessemer's boundary and the 3,519 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bessemer's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bessemer's 3,519 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gogebic County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gogebic 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 Gogebic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bessemer's 3,519 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bessemer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,519 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bessemer-wide figureread your own land →
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