Elberta, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elberta, 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 Elberta 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 Elberta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elberta — the short answer
Elberta, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 479 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 479 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 6b is Elberta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elberta's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elberta
Each reading below is measured for Elberta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElberta 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
MeasuredElberta sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Elberta is in
Elberta sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elberta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benzie County.
What Grows in Elberta
Every plant below cleared Elberta's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elberta?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Elberta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elberta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North Star MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Betsie Bay Marina LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Former Railroad YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Betsie Bay DockominiumsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Koch Materials CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Frankfort Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Luedtke Engineering CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LUEDTKE ENGINEERING COMPANYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Jacobson Marina ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Frankfort Municipal MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Frankfort EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Frankfort Union 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elberta'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 Elberta.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Elberta
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elberta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elberta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elberta, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Elberta. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Elberta
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 Elberta average
Your land is one point inside Elberta
Everything above resolves to Elberta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 479 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 Elberta Average
Elberta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Elberta
- ●One soil character for all of Elberta
- ●Frost dates read at Elberta's scale: Apr 28 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elberta's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elberta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elberta, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elberta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elberta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elberta average
How we know this about Elberta
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 Elberta’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 Elberta
When does frost risk typically end in Elberta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elberta typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Elberta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elberta typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elberta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elberta sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 25, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elberta?
The federal record around Elberta shows 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Elberta?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elberta's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elberta'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 Elberta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elberta's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 479 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elberta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elberta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Nov 8 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elberta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elberta's boundary and the 479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elberta'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 Elberta's 479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benzie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benzie 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 Benzie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elberta's 479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elberta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 479 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Elberta-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganElberta sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides