North Branch, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Branch, 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 North Branch 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 North Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Branch — the short answer
North Branch, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 923 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 923 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 North Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Branch's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Branch
Each reading below is measured for North Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Branch runs about 182 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
MeasuredNorth Branch 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 North Branch is in
North Branch sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Branch's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lapeer County is mostly Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Branch
Every plant below cleared North Branch's own zone 6a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Branch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around North Branch
Survey cells within 31 miles of North Branch checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North Branch Schools Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 25 ft
- North Branch Auto Service LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- NORTH BRANCH OILBrownfields · 550 ft
- North Branch Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Sunrise Store #09Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Yakes AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RUBBER & PLASTICS COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- NORTH BRANCH SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Agri Sales, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ALBERTA PROPERTIES LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Harmon OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Whistle StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Branch'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 North Branch.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of North Branch
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in North Branch
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 North Branch average
Your land is one point inside North Branch
Everything above resolves to North Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 923 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 North Branch Average
North Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North Branch
- ●One soil character for all of North Branch
- ●Frost dates read at North Branch's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Branch's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Branch, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Branch average
How we know this about North Branch
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 North Branch’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 North Branch
When does frost risk typically end in North Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Branch typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in North Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Branch typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Branch sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 10, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Branch?
The federal record around North Branch shows 113 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in North Branch?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Branch's scale — its 6a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Branch'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 North Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Branch's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 923 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 24 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Branch's boundary and the 923 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Branch sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around North Branch 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 North Branch's 923 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lapeer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lapeer 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 Lapeer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Branch's 923 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 923 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 North Branch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganNorth Branch sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides