Conway, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Conway, 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 Conway 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 Conway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Conway — the short answer
Conway, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 269 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 269 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 5b is Conway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Conway's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Conway
Each reading below is measured for Conway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConway runs about 180 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
MeasuredConway sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Conway is in
Conway sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Conway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Emmet County.
What Grows in Conway
Every plant below cleared Conway's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Conway?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Conway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Conway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hsasda - Station #8Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HOLTONS LP GASBrownfields · 1500 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1603Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- TRI RIVER COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BROWN MOTOR FORD LINCOLN-MERCURYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AUTO WORLDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- United Parcel ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Hsasda - Station #21Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- M J DOUBLE D LLCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- BIRCHWOOD CONSTRUCTION COMPANYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Conway'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 Conway.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Conway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Conway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Conway, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Conway. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Conway
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 Conway average
Your land is one point inside Conway
Everything above resolves to Conway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 269 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 Conway Average
Conway Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Conway
- ●One soil character for all of Conway
- ●Frost dates read at Conway's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Conway's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Conway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Conway, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Conway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Conway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Conway average
How we know this about Conway
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 Conway’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 Conway
When does frost risk typically end in Conway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Conway typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Conway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Conway typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Conway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Conway sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 12, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Conway?
The federal record around Conway is a meaningful one — 285 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Conway?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Conway's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Conway'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 Conway’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Conway's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 269 acres it covers and 285 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Conway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Conway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 26 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 285 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Conway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Conway's boundary and the 269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Conway'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 Conway's 269 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Emmet County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Emmet 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 Emmet County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Conway's 269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Conway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 269 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Conway-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganConway sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides