Maple Grove, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Maple Grove, 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 Maple Grove 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 Maple Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Maple Grove — the short answer
Maple Grove, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 225 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 225 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 Maple Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maple Grove's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maple Grove
Each reading below is measured for Maple Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaple Grove runs about 181 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
MeasuredMaple Grove 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 Maple Grove is in
Maple Grove sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Maple Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benzie County.
What Grows in Maple Grove
Every plant below cleared Maple Grove's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maple Grove?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Maple Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maple Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- West Side Management IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- METAL WORKING SHOPSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- EASTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- B & M Party Store IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAKE ANN BAPTIST CAMPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 27N 12W 29BCBC 01 GRAND TRAVERSE CO (B9)Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 271218Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- Cherryland Grocery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- GENESIS ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- HEIGES PERFORMANCE INCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Marvin C ClarkUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Northwood Buys PaintUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maple Grove'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 Maple Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maple Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maple Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maple Grove, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Maple Grove. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Maple Grove
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 Maple Grove average
Your land is one point inside Maple Grove
Everything above resolves to Maple Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 225 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 town 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 Maple Grove Average
Maple Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Maple Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Maple Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Maple Grove's scale: May 1 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maple Grove's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maple Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maple Grove, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maple Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maple Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maple Grove average
How we know this about Maple Grove
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Maple Grove’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Maple Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Maple Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maple Grove typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Maple Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maple Grove 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maple Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maple Grove sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 15, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maple Grove?
The federal record around Maple Grove is a meaningful one — 216 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Maple Grove?
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 Maple Grove's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maple Grove'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 Maple Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maple Grove's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 225 acres it covers and 216 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maple Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maple Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 29 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 216 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maple Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maple Grove's boundary and the 225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maple Grove's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Maple Grove's 225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benzie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benzie 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 Benzie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maple Grove's 225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maple Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 225 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Maple Grove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganMaple Grove sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides