Au Gres, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Au Gres, 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 Au Gres 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 Au Gres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Au Gres — the short answer
Au Gres, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- 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 6a is Au Gres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Au Gres's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Au Gres
Each reading below is measured for Au Gres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAu Gres runs about 192 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
MeasuredAu Gres 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 Au Gres is in
Au Gres sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Au Gres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Arenac County.
What Grows in Au Gres
Every plant below cleared Au Gres's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Au Gres?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Au Gres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Au Gres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 140 S. Court St.Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Former Pressler ElectricUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Au Gres State DocksUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (B02-06073)Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Dewalds Shell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BOPP BUSCH MFG COBrownfields · 1900 ft
- River's Edge of Au Gres Inc (Lessee)Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Inland Marine, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Bopp-busch Mfg. CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 4 Seasons Sport CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ATD ENGINEERING AND MACHINEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Pier 23Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Au Gres'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 Au Gres.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Au Gres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Au Gres, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Au Gres. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Au Gres
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 Au Gres average
Your land is one point inside Au Gres
Everything above resolves to Au Gres 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 Au Gres Average
Au Gres Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Au Gres
- ●One soil character for all of Au Gres
- ●Frost dates read at Au Gres's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Au Gres's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Au Gres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Au Gres, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Au Gres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Au Gres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Au Gres average
How we know this about Au Gres
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 Au Gres’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 Au Gres
When does frost risk typically end in Au Gres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Au Gres typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Au Gres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Au Gres typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Au Gres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Au Gres sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 14, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Au Gres?
The federal record around Au Gres is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Au Gres?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Au Gres's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Au Gres'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 Au Gres’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Au Gres's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,458 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Au Gres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Au Gres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 28 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Au Gres, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Au Gres's boundary and the 1,458 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Au Gres's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Au Gres's 1,458 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Arenac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Arenac 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 Arenac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Au Gres's 1,458 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Au Gres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,458 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Au Gres-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganAu Gres sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides