Kentwood, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kentwood, 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 Kentwood 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 Kentwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kentwood — the short answer
Kentwood, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 13K 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 Kentwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kentwood's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kentwood
Each reading below is measured for Kentwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKentwood runs about 194 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
MeasuredKentwood 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 Kentwood is in
Kentwood sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kentwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kent County.
What Grows in Kentwood
Every plant below cleared Kentwood's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kentwood?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Kentwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kentwood 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 Kentwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kentwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Meadowlane Golf Course IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Kentwood City GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALGREEN COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HEALTHY SMILE PLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MED 1 BRETON LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- DOLLAR EXPRESS STORES LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SPECTRUM HEALTH MEDICAL GROUPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KENTWOOD LANDFILLSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- City Of KentwoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ONE HOUR MARTINIZING BRETONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- REPCOLITE PAINTS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LACKS INDUSTRIES INC AIRWEST PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kentwood'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 Kentwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kentwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kentwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kentwood, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 230 sites within ~10 miles of Kentwood. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kentwood
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 Kentwood average
Your land is one point inside Kentwood
Everything above resolves to Kentwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 Kentwood Average
Kentwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kentwood
- ●One soil character for all of Kentwood
- ●Frost dates read at Kentwood's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kentwood's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kentwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kentwood, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kentwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kentwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kentwood average
How we know this about Kentwood
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 Kentwood’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 Kentwood
When does frost risk typically end in Kentwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kentwood typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Kentwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kentwood typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kentwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kentwood sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kentwood?
The federal record around Kentwood runs heavier than most — 2,786 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,342), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kentwood?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kentwood's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kentwood'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 Kentwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kentwood's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,386 acres it covers and 2,786 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kentwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kentwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,786 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kentwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kentwood's boundary and the 13,386 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kentwood's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Kentwood 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 Kentwood's 13,386 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kent 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 Kent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kentwood's 13,386 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kentwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,386 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Kentwood-wide figureread your own land →