Climax, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Climax, 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 Climax 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 Climax — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Climax — the short answer
Climax, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 675 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 675 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 Climax's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Climax's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Climax
Each reading below is measured for Climax itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClimax runs about 202 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
MeasuredClimax 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 Climax is in
Climax sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Climax's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kalamazoo County.
What Grows in Climax
Every plant below cleared Climax's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Climax?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Climax
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Climax, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Climax
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Climax. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Climax Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Foster & SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SOUTHERN MICHIGAN AUTO BODY LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Climax-scotts Community SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 03S 09W 02DCD01 KALAMAZOO COUNTY (K-14)Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Loren F. ClemenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Seyberts ExcavatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 03S 09W 01CBB 01 KALAMAZOO CONitrate · 1.1 mi
- Battle Creek Farm Bureau Assoc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Tall Timbers CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- COLDBROOK-SNitrate · 1.2 mi
- COLDBROOK-DNitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Climax'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 Climax.
Total Sites
718
within ~10 miles of Climax
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Climax
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Climax
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Climax, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Climax. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Climax
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 Climax average
Your land is one point inside Climax
Everything above resolves to Climax as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 675 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 Climax Average
Climax Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Climax
- ●One soil character for all of Climax
- ●Frost dates read at Climax's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Climax's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Climax
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Climax, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Climax averages can't show:
We read public map data around Climax — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Climax average
How we know this about Climax
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 Climax’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 Climax
When does frost risk typically end in Climax?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Climax typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Climax?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Climax typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Climax?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Climax sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 20, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Climax?
The federal record around Climax is a meaningful one — 718 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (354), 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 Climax?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Climax's scale — its 6a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Climax'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 Climax’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Climax's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 675 acres it covers and 718 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Climax's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Climax's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 3 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 718 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Climax, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Climax's boundary and the 675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Climax's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Climaxlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Climax's 675 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kalamazoo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kalamazoo 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 Kalamazoo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Climax's 675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Climax you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 675 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 Climax-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganClimax sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides