Canada Creek Ranch, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Canada Creek Ranch, 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 Canada Creek Ranch 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 Canada Creek Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Canada Creek Ranch — the short answer
Canada Creek Ranch, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 139 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~139
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5a is Canada Creek Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Canada Creek Ranch's 139-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Canada Creek Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Canada Creek Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCanada Creek Ranch runs about 139 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCanada Creek Ranch sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Canada Creek Ranch is in
Canada Creek Ranch sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Canada Creek Ranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montmorency County.
What Grows in Canada Creek Ranch
Every plant below cleared Canada Creek Ranch's own zone 5a and its 139-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Canada Creek Ranch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Canada Creek Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Canada Creek Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 31N 02E 03ADD 01 MNTMRYNitrate · 4.9 mi
- Atlanta Radio Tower SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Elk Ridge Golf CourseUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- ELK RUN LANDFILLBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- Red's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- 33N 01W 26DABB01 CHEBOYGAN CO (PIGEON CCC)Nitrate · 9.4 mi
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 9.6 mi
- Pigeon River Field OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
Measured from Canada Creek Ranch'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 Canada Creek Ranch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Canada Creek Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Canada Creek Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •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.
Check your specific parcel in Canada Creek Ranch
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 Canada Creek Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Canada Creek Ranch
Everything above resolves to Canada Creek Ranch 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 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 Canada Creek Ranch Average
Canada Creek Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Canada Creek Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Canada Creek Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Canada Creek Ranch's scale: May 18 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Canada Creek Ranch's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Canada Creek Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Canada Creek Ranch, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Canada Creek Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Canada Creek Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Canada Creek Ranch average
How we know this about Canada Creek Ranch
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 Canada Creek Ranch’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 Canada Creek Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Canada Creek Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Canada Creek Ranch typically lands around May 18, 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 Jun 8.
When is the first frost in Canada Creek Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Canada Creek Ranch typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 139 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Canada Creek Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Canada Creek Ranch sees about 139 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 20, about 104 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Canada Creek Ranch?
The federal record around Canada Creek Ranch is light — 11 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Canada Creek Ranch?
With about 139 frost-free days between hard freezes, Canada Creek Ranch rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 167 to 195 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Canada Creek Ranch's scale — its 5a band and its 139-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Canada Creek Ranch'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 Canada Creek Ranch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Canada Creek Ranch's own scale — its own ~139-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,428 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Canada Creek Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Canada Creek Ranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Oct 4 and the ~139-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Canada Creek Ranch, the closest Nitrate record about 4.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Canada Creek Ranch's boundary and the 1,428 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~139-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Canada Creek Ranch'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 Canada Creek Ranch's 1,428 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montmorency County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montmorency 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 Montmorency County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Canada Creek Ranch's 1,428 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Canada Creek Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,428 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 4.9 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 Canada Creek Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
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