Grand Haven, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grand Haven, 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 Grand Haven 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 Grand Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grand Haven — the short answer
Grand Haven, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Grand Haven's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grand Haven's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grand Haven
Each reading below is measured for Grand Haven itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrand Haven runs about 207 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
MeasuredGrand Haven 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 Grand Haven is in
Grand Haven sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grand Haven's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ottawa County.
What Grows in Grand Haven
Every plant below cleared Grand Haven's own zone 6b and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grand Haven?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. 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 Grand Haven
Survey cells within 31 miles of Grand Haven checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 80 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Grand Haven
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grand Haven. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Grand Haven Pacific PrideUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Mathews FurnitureUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 800 ft
- AUTOZONE INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- SNOOK INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 1500 ft
- AUTOMATIC SPRING PRODUCTS CORPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Grabman Associates IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Grand Haven EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Grand Haven Shell Mini-MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Jerrys Citgo ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PREFERRED AUTOMOTIVE GROUP LLCBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grand Haven'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 Grand Haven.
Total Sites
537
within ~10 miles of Grand Haven
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
42 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grand Haven
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grand Haven
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grand Haven, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Grand Haven — PFAS (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (42 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Grand Haven
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 Grand Haven average
Your land is one point inside Grand Haven
Everything above resolves to Grand Haven as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Grand Haven Average
Grand Haven Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Grand Haven
- ●One soil character for all of Grand Haven
- ●Frost dates read at Grand Haven's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grand Haven's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grand Haven
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grand Haven, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grand Haven averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grand Haven — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grand Haven average
How we know this about Grand Haven
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 Grand Haven’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 Grand Haven
When does frost risk typically end in Grand Haven?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Haven typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Grand Haven?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Haven 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 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grand Haven?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grand Haven sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 24, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grand Haven?
The federal record around Grand Haven is a meaningful one — 537 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (254), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Grand Haven?
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 Grand Haven's scale — its 6b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grand Haven'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 Grand Haven’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Grand Haven's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,663 acres it covers and 537 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grand Haven's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grand Haven's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 7 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 537 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grand Haven, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grand Haven's boundary and the 3,663 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grand Haven's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Grand Haven 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 Grand Haven's 3,663 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ottawa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ottawa 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 Ottawa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grand Haven's 3,663 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grand Haven you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,663 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Grand Haven-wide figureread your own land →
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