Holland, 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Holland, 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 Holland 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 Holland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holland — the short answer
Holland, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Holland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holland's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holland
Each reading below is measured for Holland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHolland runs about 206 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
MeasuredHolland 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 Holland is in
Holland sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegan County.
What Grows in Holland
Every plant below cleared Holland's own zone 6b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Holland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Holland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Holland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mikes Mobil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Maplewood Auto IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Great Lakes InteriorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MAPLEWOOD DRYCLEANERSBrownfields · 750 ft
- Maplewood Dry CleanersUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- The Voss BoysUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Ottawa CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Stripe A Lot AsphaltUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Koning Machine & Tool CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LA BARGE MIRRORS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- LA BARGE MIRRORS INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MAPLEWOOD AUTO INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holland'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 Holland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holland, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 110 sites within ~10 miles of Holland. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Holland
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 Holland average
Your land is one point inside Holland
Everything above resolves to Holland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Holland Average
Holland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Holland
- ●One soil character for all of Holland
- ●Frost dates read at Holland's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holland's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holland, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holland average
How we know this about Holland
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 Holland’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 Holland
When does frost risk typically end in Holland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holland typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Holland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holland typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holland sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 22, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holland?
The federal record around Holland is a meaningful one — 818 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (353), 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 Holland?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holland's scale — its 6b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holland'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 Holland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Holland's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,833 acres it covers and 818 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 5 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 818 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holland's boundary and the 10,833 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holland's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Holland 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 Holland's 10,833 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 Holland's 10,833 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,833 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 Holland-wide figureread your own land →
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