Boyne Falls, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Boyne Falls, 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 Boyne Falls 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 Boyne Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boyne Falls — the short answer
Boyne Falls, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 357 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 357 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 5a is Boyne Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boyne Falls's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boyne Falls
Each reading below is measured for Boyne Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBoyne Falls runs about 163 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
MeasuredBoyne Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Boyne Falls is in
Boyne Falls sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Boyne Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charlevoix County.
What Grows in Boyne Falls
Every plant below cleared Boyne Falls's own zone 5a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boyne Falls?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Boyne Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boyne Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Village Of Boyne Falls GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Boyne Falls EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Station AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Boyne Mt LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Boyne USA Resorts IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WOLVERINE POWER SUPPLY COOPERATIVE INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- DAVIDSON TRANSMISSION REPAIR INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Sleepy Fawn MotelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY OF MICHIGAN LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- TIMBERWOLF FINISHING SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- William Hunt & Son, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Clares Country CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boyne Falls'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 Boyne Falls.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Boyne Falls
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boyne Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boyne Falls
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Boyne Falls
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 Boyne Falls average
Your land is one point inside Boyne Falls
Everything above resolves to Boyne Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 357 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 Boyne Falls Average
Boyne Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Boyne Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Boyne Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Boyne Falls's scale: May 9 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boyne Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boyne Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boyne Falls, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boyne Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boyne Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boyne Falls average
How we know this about Boyne Falls
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 Boyne Falls’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 Boyne Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Boyne Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boyne Falls typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Boyne Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boyne Falls typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boyne Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boyne Falls sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Oct 5, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boyne Falls?
The federal record around Boyne Falls shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Boyne Falls?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boyne Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boyne Falls'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 Boyne Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Boyne Falls's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 357 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boyne Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boyne Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 19 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boyne Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boyne Falls's boundary and the 357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boyne Falls's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boyne Falls's 357 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charlevoix County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charlevoix 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 Charlevoix County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boyne Falls's 357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boyne Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 357 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 Boyne Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganBoyne Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides