Hudsonville, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hudsonville, 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 Hudsonville 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 Hudsonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hudsonville — the short answer
Hudsonville, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6a is Hudsonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hudsonville's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hudsonville
Each reading below is measured for Hudsonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHudsonville runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHudsonville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Hudsonville is in
Hudsonville sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hudsonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ottawa County.
What Grows in Hudsonville
Every plant below cleared Hudsonville's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hudsonville?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Hudsonville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hudsonville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 62 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hudsonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hudsonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUDSONVILLE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 700 ft
- Crispheart Produce, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Hudsonville Public Schools BusUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Nu-wool Insulation Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Downtown Development AuthorityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Timmer Chevrolet-geo, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Farmers Co-op Elevator CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Bob & Jeffs Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- K. & E. IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Ver Hage Motor Sales CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- VERHAGE MOTORS SALES COBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Hudsonville Jr. HighUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hudsonville'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 Hudsonville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hudsonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hudsonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hudsonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hudsonville — Toxics Release Inventory (68 sites) and Brownfields (527 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Hudsonville
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 Hudsonville average
Your land is one point inside Hudsonville
Everything above resolves to Hudsonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Hudsonville Average
Hudsonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hudsonville
- ●One soil character for all of Hudsonville
- ●Frost dates read at Hudsonville's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hudsonville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hudsonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hudsonville, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hudsonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hudsonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hudsonville average
How we know this about Hudsonville
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 Hudsonville’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 Hudsonville
When does frost risk typically end in Hudsonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hudsonville typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Hudsonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hudsonville typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hudsonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hudsonville sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 19, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hudsonville?
The federal record around Hudsonville is a meaningful one — 1,078 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (527), the nearest Brownfields 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 Hudsonville?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hudsonville's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hudsonville'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 Hudsonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hudsonville's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,636 acres it covers and 1,078 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hudsonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hudsonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 2 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,078 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hudsonville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hudsonville's boundary and the 2,636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hudsonville's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hudsonville 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 Hudsonville's 2,636 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 Hudsonville's 2,636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hudsonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,636 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Hudsonville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Growing region
Nearby growing guides