Fennville, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Fennville, 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 Fennville 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 Fennville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fennville — the short answer
Fennville, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 716 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 716 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 Fennville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fennville's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fennville
Each reading below is measured for Fennville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFennville runs about 204 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
MeasuredFennville 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 Fennville is in
Fennville sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fennville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegan County.
What Grows in Fennville
Every plant below cleared Fennville's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fennville?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Fennville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fennville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fennville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fennville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Johns Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- ALLEGAN PROFESSIONAL HEALTH SERVICEBrownfields · 200 ft
- Fennville Shell MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ACRO CHEMICAL CO INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- Fennville FeedUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- City Of Fennville City HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- City Maint. GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CONAGRA FOODS PACKAGED FOODS, LLCBrownfields · 850 ft
- Petro & Pantry IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Michigan Fruit CannersUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WEST MICHIGAN FLOCKING & ASSEMBLYToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- Bus Maintenance BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fennville'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 Fennville.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of Fennville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fennville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fennville
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 Fennville
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 Fennville average
Your land is one point inside Fennville
Everything above resolves to Fennville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 716 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 city 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 Fennville Average
Fennville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fennville
- ●One soil character for all of Fennville
- ●Frost dates read at Fennville's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fennville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fennville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fennville, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fennville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fennville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fennville average
How we know this about Fennville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fennville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Fennville
When does frost risk typically end in Fennville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fennville typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Fennville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fennville typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fennville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fennville sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 24, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fennville?
The federal record around Fennville is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), 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 Fennville?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fennville's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fennville'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 Fennville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fennville's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 716 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fennville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fennville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 7 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fennville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fennville's boundary and the 716 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fennville's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fennville 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 Fennville's 716 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegan 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 Allegan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fennville's 716 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fennville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 716 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 Fennville-wide figureread your own land →
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