North Muskegon, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Muskegon, 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 Muskegon 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 Muskegon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Muskegon — the short answer
North Muskegon, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 North Muskegon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Muskegon's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Muskegon
Each reading below is measured for North Muskegon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Muskegon runs about 204 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
MeasuredNorth Muskegon 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 North Muskegon is in
North Muskegon sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Muskegon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Muskegon County.
What Grows in North Muskegon
Every plant below cleared North Muskegon's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Muskegon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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.
What's on the federal record near North Muskegon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Muskegon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Northshore MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Sally A Broersma TrustUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- North Muskegon Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Gte 6055-001Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- THOMAS MUIR DDSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EARTH TECH INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MUSKEGON 10-17 BEAR LAKE WELL 4Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- NORTH MUSKEGON CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WESCO INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Wesco #18Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Speedy LubeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Sherburn GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Muskegon'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 Muskegon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Muskegon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Muskegon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Muskegon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Muskegon — Superfund (18 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (74 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in North Muskegon
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 Muskegon average
Your land is one point inside North Muskegon
Everything above resolves to North Muskegon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 North Muskegon Average
North Muskegon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across North Muskegon
- ●One soil character for all of North Muskegon
- ●Frost dates read at North Muskegon's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Muskegon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Muskegon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Muskegon, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Muskegon averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Muskegon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Muskegon average
How we know this about North Muskegon
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 North Muskegon’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 North Muskegon
When does frost risk typically end in North Muskegon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Muskegon typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in North Muskegon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Muskegon 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Muskegon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Muskegon sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 22, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Muskegon?
The federal record around North Muskegon runs heavier than most — 886 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (438), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 North Muskegon?
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 North Muskegon's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Muskegon'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 Muskegon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Muskegon's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,146 acres it covers and 886 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Muskegon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Muskegon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 5 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 886 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Muskegon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Muskegon's boundary and the 1,146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Muskegon's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Muskegon's 1,146 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Muskegon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Muskegon 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 Muskegon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Muskegon's 1,146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Muskegon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,146 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 Muskegon-wide figureread your own land →