Michigan gardening lives and dies on timing. These four resources answer when to start, when to transplant, and how to read your actual frost risk instead of guessing from a generic last-frost date.
Start dates, transplant windows, and direct-sow timing for 30+ vegetables, 8 herbs, and 7 flower types. Organized by crop with specific dates calculated for the Bay City area. If you only bookmark one page from this site, it's this one.
Open the calendarLast spring and first fall frost dates for cities across the lower and upper peninsula. Includes both 50% and 10% probability thresholds so you can calibrate your own risk rather than relying on a single date.
View frost dataNOAA's full probability table for Bay City pulled out specifically, from 90% down to 10% probability. Answers the exact question: what are the odds of a frost on May 8th?
See the tableTimelines calculated backward from your target transplant date, covering germination temps, lighting requirements, and a hardening-off schedule that most guides underestimate in length.
Start your seeds rightTomatoes teach you more about Michigan gardening than any other crop because they demand so much patience in a short-season climate. These two pages cover timing and variety selection together: everything the tomato question actually requires.
Not just a date: a soil temperature reading, a hardening-off schedule, and a week-by-week Zone 6a timeline from seed start through June 15 frost protection. Includes a regional comparison table from Detroit to the Upper Peninsula and a complete variety timing breakdown.
Plan your tomato seasonTen variety profiles with days to maturity, disease notes, and field observations from Freighter View Farms. Covers Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Stupice, Green Zebra, and more.
Browse varietiesThe seasonal writing, what worked, what the late frosts actually did, how August heat affects productivity. That writing lives on the Freighter View Farms blog, not in a guide format. That's where the real notes are kept.
Read the blogHeirloom seed saving is the reason Freighter View Farms exists. These two pages cover the theory and the practice: what open-pollinated means and why it matters, then the step-by-step procedures for saving from your best plants.
A complete, honest comparison that doesn't romanticize heirlooms or dismiss hybrids. Covers genetics, breeding history, flavor, disease resistance, yield, and the practical question of which type belongs where in a Zone 6a Michigan garden.
Read the comparisonCrop-by-crop procedures covering fermentation for tomatoes, dry processing for beans and squash, isolation distances to maintain variety purity, and long-term storage methods that keep seed viable for five or more years.
Learn seed savingRegion-by-region directory of free seed lending programs and annual swap events across Michigan — from Bay City libraries to UP garden clubs. Find seeds near you.
Browse the directory →What goes next to what, and what belongs in a Saginaw Bay yard. These two pages cover the ecological side of garden planning: companion planting with real evidence, and native plants for Zone 6a lakeshore conditions.
Eight planting combinations that work in Zone 6a, each with evidence cited. Four combinations to avoid and why. Four ready-to-use bed plans. No gardening folklore presented as fact. Only what holds up under scrutiny.
Plan your bedsNative plants sorted by sun exposure, moisture needs, and wildlife value for the lower peninsula. Includes species suited specifically to Saginaw Bay lakeshore conditions, bloom time for pollinator succession, and sourcing guidance.
Browse native plantsFreighter View Farms is four raised beds and a stretch of south-facing in-ground space on the shore of Saginaw Bay in Bay City, Michigan. Managed by Chris Izworski, the garden grows primarily open-pollinated vegetables with a focus on seed saving and variety preservation.
The name comes from the view. On a clear morning in late May, you can watch a lake freighter move across the horizon while you decide whether it is finally warm enough to plant. Most mornings in May, it is not. You wait another week.
Zone 6a Michigan has a specific climate that general gardening resources rarely account for well. The Saginaw Bay lakeshore delays spring warming. The late frost dates are real, not dramatic. The 148-day growing season is workable but unforgiving when tomatoes go in too early.
Every page in this collection is grounded in Bay City conditions and checked against MSU Extension and NOAA data. If you grow anywhere in the lower peninsula, the timing should be close enough to useful. Add a week if you are on the lakeshore. Subtract a few days inland.
The guides above are the reference material. The writing about what gardening actually feels like in Bay City, across seasons and years, lives at Freighter View Farms. Seed starting notes in February. What the May 8 frost actually did. What you replant in September when the beds open back up.