Van Buren County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Van Buren County lies within the Southwest Michigan Wine Coast — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Van Buren County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Van Buren County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Van Buren County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Van Buren County — the short answer
Van Buren County, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 389K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 389K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6b is Van Buren County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Van Buren County's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Van Buren County's hard-freeze record runs about 208 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Bloomingdale at about 177 days and Lawrence at 177 (against the county's ~208).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~208-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Van Buren County
Across a year, Van Buren County accumulates about 2,519 growing degree days above 50°F, about 419 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 73 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Van Buren County
Across Van Buren County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Coloma, Spinks, and Oshtemo are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
21%
Hydric soils
27%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Van Buren County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Van Buren County as well drained — but another 65% drains differently: 24% somewhat poorly drained, 12% very poorly drained.
Coloma is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Spinks (9%) and Oshtemo (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Van Buren County
Each reading below is measured for Van Buren County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Van Buren County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Van Buren County runs about pH 5.8–6.6, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 27% of Van Buren County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredVan Buren County runs about 208 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
The kind of country Van Buren County is in
Van Buren County sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Van Buren County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Van Buren County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 208-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile.
Is it too late to plant in Van Buren County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Van Buren County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Van Buren County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly83 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Van Buren County
USGS estimates 86,867 lb of Glyphosate on Van Buren County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (30,305 lb) and Atrazine (24,014 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Van Buren County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Van Buren County — 611 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Van Buren County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Van Buren County
Closest first, across Van Buren County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Forrest DunesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 02S 17W 09CCDA01 VAN BUREN CO (VB-12)Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- William HeurichUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Fish CornersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Covert Public Schools-bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Covert Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Covert Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Covert Twp Office BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Covert Twp PoliceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Joe's Mini-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- COVERT MICHIGAN MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 2.5 mi
- NEAR VN BUR OBS WELL 14, D-42Nitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Van Buren County'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 Van Buren County.
Sources Checked
across Van Buren County
Severity Distribution
across Van Buren County
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 Van Buren County
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 Van Buren County average
Your land is one point inside Van Buren County
Everything above resolves to Van Buren County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 389K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Van Buren County Average
Van Buren County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Van Buren County
- ●One soil character for all of Van Buren County
- ●Frost dates read at Van Buren County's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Van Buren County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Van Buren County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Van Buren County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Van Buren County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Van Buren County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Van Buren County average
How we know this about Van Buren County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Van Buren County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Van Buren County
When does frost risk typically end in Van Buren County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Van Buren County typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Van Buren County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Van Buren County sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 27, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Van Buren County?
The federal record around Van Buren County is a meaningful one — 611 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (336), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Van Buren County's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Van Buren County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Michigan's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Van Buren County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Van Buren County's own scale — its own ~208-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 611 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Van Buren County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Van Buren County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Van Buren CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 611 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Van Buren County's boundary and the 388,990 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Van Buren County sitting wholly inside the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Van Buren County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Van Buren County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Van Buren County — the ~208 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Van Buren County's 388,990 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 611 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Van Buren Countyread your own land →