Glen Arbor, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Glen Arbor, 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 Glen Arbor 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 Glen Arbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glen Arbor — the short answer
Glen Arbor, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 659 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 659 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 Glen Arbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glen Arbor's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glen Arbor
Each reading below is measured for Glen Arbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlen Arbor runs about 203 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
MeasuredGlen Arbor 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 Glen Arbor is in
Glen Arbor sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glen Arbor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Leelanau County.
What Grows in Glen Arbor
Every plant below cleared Glen Arbor's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glen Arbor?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Glen Arbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glen Arbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Glen Arbor Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Dobson's AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Glen Craft Marina & Resort, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Glen Arbor Quik Stop LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Klett FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Crystal Harbor Marina IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JACKLIN PAINTING AND WALLCOVERINGBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- JACKLIN PAINTING AND WALLCOVERINGS INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- THE LEELANAU SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- The Leelanau SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 29N 14W 20DDDD01 LEELANAU CO D.H. DAY LOT 13 NO. 4Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- Homecare Management CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glen Arbor'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 Glen Arbor.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Glen Arbor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glen Arbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glen Arbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glen Arbor, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Glen Arbor. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Glen Arbor
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 Glen Arbor average
Your land is one point inside Glen Arbor
Everything above resolves to Glen Arbor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 659 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 Glen Arbor Average
Glen Arbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Glen Arbor
- ●One soil character for all of Glen Arbor
- ●Frost dates read at Glen Arbor's scale: Apr 23 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glen Arbor's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glen Arbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glen Arbor, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glen Arbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glen Arbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glen Arbor average
How we know this about Glen Arbor
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 Glen Arbor’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 Glen Arbor
When does frost risk typically end in Glen Arbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Arbor typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Glen Arbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Arbor typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glen Arbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glen Arbor sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 29, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glen Arbor?
The federal record around Glen Arbor is a meaningful one — 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Glen Arbor?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glen Arbor's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glen Arbor'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 Glen Arbor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Glen Arbor's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 659 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glen Arbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glen Arbor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Nov 12 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glen Arbor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glen Arbor's boundary and the 659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glen Arbor'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 Glen Arbor's 659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leelanau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leelanau 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 Leelanau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glen Arbor's 659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glen Arbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Glen Arbor-wide figureread your own land →
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