Caledonia, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Caledonia, 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 Caledonia 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 Caledonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Caledonia — the short answer
Caledonia, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 858 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 858 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 Caledonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caledonia's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Caledonia
Each reading below is measured for Caledonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCaledonia runs about 194 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
MeasuredCaledonia 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 Caledonia is in
Caledonia sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Caledonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Caledonia
Every plant below cleared Caledonia's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Caledonia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Caledonia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Caledonia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Caledonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Caledonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CROELS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CALEDONIA FARMERS ELEVATORBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Caledonia Farmers Elev. CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Caledonia #3 ESS (M41383)Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EDS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2200 ft
- Caledonia Bus Garage3Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- D & W Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SPARTAN STORES FUEL LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SPEEDWAY LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Speedway #3591Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CALEDONIA SCHOOLSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Caledonia Tractor & Equipment CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caledonia'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 Caledonia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Caledonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Caledonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Caledonia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Caledonia — Toxics Release Inventory (101 sites) and Brownfields (574 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Caledonia
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 Caledonia average
Your land is one point inside Caledonia
Everything above resolves to Caledonia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 858 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 Caledonia Average
Caledonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Caledonia
- ●One soil character for all of Caledonia
- ●Frost dates read at Caledonia's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caledonia's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Caledonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caledonia, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caledonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caledonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caledonia average
How we know this about Caledonia
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 Caledonia’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 Caledonia
When does frost risk typically end in Caledonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caledonia typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Caledonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Caledonia typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Caledonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caledonia sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Caledonia?
The federal record around Caledonia is a meaningful one — 1,105 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (574), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Caledonia?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Caledonia's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caledonia'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 Caledonia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Caledonia's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 858 acres it covers and 1,105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caledonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Caledonia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Caledonia, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Caledonia's boundary and the 858 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Caledonia's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Caledonia 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 Caledonia's 858 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kent 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 Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Caledonia's 858 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Caledonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 858 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Caledonia-wide figureread your own land →
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