Carney, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carney, 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 Carney 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 Carney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carney — the short answer
Carney, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 877 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 877 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 Carney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carney's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carney
Each reading below is measured for Carney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarney runs about 148 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
MeasuredCarney 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 Carney is in
Carney sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Carney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Menominee County.
What Grows in Carney
Every plant below cleared Carney's own zone 5a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carney?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Carney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 37N 26W 17 CDC 01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Spehar Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 37N 26W 17CDCD01 MENOMINEE CO (CARNEY VILLAGE)Nitrate · 2400 ft
- Carney Quik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MINERALS PROCESSING CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 37N 26W 19DADA01 MENOMINEE CO (CARNEY)Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- GREAT LAKES WOOD PRESERVERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LINDER IMPLEMENT CO INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Stephenson Marketing Coop, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Carney-nadeau Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Frigo Cheese CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- POUPORE'S AUTO BODYBrownfields · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carney'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 Carney.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Carney
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carney
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Carney
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 Carney average
Your land is one point inside Carney
Everything above resolves to Carney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 877 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 Carney Average
Carney Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Carney
- ●One soil character for all of Carney
- ●Frost dates read at Carney's scale: May 12 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carney's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carney, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carney average
How we know this about Carney
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 Carney’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 Carney
When does frost risk typically end in Carney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carney typically lands around May 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Carney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carney typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carney sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 23, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carney?
The federal record around Carney is a meaningful one — 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Carney?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Carney 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Carney's scale — its 5a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carney'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 Carney’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carney's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 877 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Oct 7 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carney, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carney's boundary and the 877 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carney'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 Carney's 877 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Menominee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Menominee 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 Menominee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carney's 877 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 877 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Carney-wide figureread your own land →
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