Grosse Pointe, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Grosse Pointe, 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 Grosse Pointe 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 Grosse Pointe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grosse Pointe — the short answer
Grosse Pointe, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 680 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 680 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 Grosse Pointe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grosse Pointe's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grosse Pointe
Each reading below is measured for Grosse Pointe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrosse Pointe runs about 222 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
MeasuredGrosse Pointe 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 Grosse Pointe is in
Grosse Pointe sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grosse Pointe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Grosse Pointe
Every plant below cleared Grosse Pointe's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grosse Pointe?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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.
Documented around Grosse Pointe
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Grosse Pointe, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Grosse Pointe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grosse Pointe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GROSSE POINTE CLUBBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Former Fisher & Maumee AutomotivUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Farm FreshUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GROSSE POINTE SCHOOL SYSTEMBrownfields · 2300 ft
- City Of Grosse PointeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BEAUMONT HEALTHBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WILLIAM BEAUMONT HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Beaumont Grosse PointeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Grosse Pointe Central Lib.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WOODWARD DETROIT CVS LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Tjo Reality LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- THE TALBOTS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grosse Pointe'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 Grosse Pointe.
Total Sites
3,151
within ~10 miles of Grosse Pointe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
79 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grosse Pointe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grosse Pointe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grosse Pointe, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 79 sites within ~10 miles of Grosse Pointe. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Grosse Pointe
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 Grosse Pointe average
Your land is one point inside Grosse Pointe
Everything above resolves to Grosse Pointe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 680 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 Grosse Pointe Average
Grosse Pointe Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Grosse Pointe
- ●One soil character for all of Grosse Pointe
- ●Frost dates read at Grosse Pointe's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grosse Pointe's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grosse Pointe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grosse Pointe, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grosse Pointe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grosse Pointe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grosse Pointe average
How we know this about Grosse Pointe
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 Grosse Pointe’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 Grosse Pointe
When does frost risk typically end in Grosse Pointe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grosse Pointe typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Grosse Pointe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grosse Pointe typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grosse Pointe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grosse Pointe sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 31, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grosse Pointe?
The federal record around Grosse Pointe is a meaningful one — 3,151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,511), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Grosse Pointe?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grosse Pointe's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grosse Pointe'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 Grosse Pointe’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Grosse Pointe's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 680 acres it covers and 3,151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grosse Pointe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grosse Pointe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 14 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grosse Pointe, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grosse Pointe's boundary and the 680 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grosse Pointe's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Grosse Pointelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grosse Pointe's 680 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grosse Pointe's 680 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grosse Pointe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 680 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Grosse Pointe-wide figureread your own land →