Antrim County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Antrim County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Antrim County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Antrim County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Antrim County — the short answer
Antrim County, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 304K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 304K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Antrim County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Antrim County's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Antrim County
Across a year, Antrim County accumulates about 1,919 growing degree days above 50°F, about 181 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 33 of Michigan’s 83 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Antrim County
Across Antrim County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Kalkaska, Blue Lake, and Springlake are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Somewhat excessively drained
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Antrim County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Antrim County as somewhat excessively drained — but another 38% drains differently: 23% well drained, 7% very poorly drained.
Kalkaska is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Blue Lake (14%) and Springlake (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Antrim County
Each reading below is measured for Antrim County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Antrim County are somewhat excessively drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Antrim County runs about pH 4.8–6.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAntrim County runs about 162 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
MeasuredAntrim County 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 Antrim County is in
Antrim County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (56%) and North Central Hardwood Forests (45%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Antrim County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Antrim County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 162-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile.
Is it too late to plant in Antrim County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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.
Documented around Antrim County
- monarch butterfly8 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Antrim County
USGS estimates 6,405 lb of Glyphosate on Antrim County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,274 lb) and 2,4-d (1,484 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Antrim County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Antrim County — 177 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Antrim County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Antrim County
Closest first, across Antrim County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Antrim County AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- County Of AntrimUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAMINA INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- LAMINA INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- At & T Comm Central LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BELLAIRE DISTRICT FIRE DEPTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Bellaire Bay MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Bellaire Field OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DALE SNOOKS AS ONE ON ONE INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Bellaire EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Russel SnoverUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Antrim County'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 Antrim County.
Sources Checked
across Antrim County
Severity Distribution
across Antrim County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Antrim County, two things run higher than the national average across Antrim County — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (116 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Antrim County
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 Antrim County average
Your land is one point inside Antrim County
Everything above resolves to Antrim County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 304K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Antrim County Average
Antrim County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Antrim County
- ●One soil character for all of Antrim County
- ●Frost dates read at Antrim County's scale: May 8 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Antrim County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Antrim County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Antrim County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Antrim County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Antrim County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Antrim County average
How we know this about Antrim County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Antrim County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Antrim County
When does frost risk typically end in Antrim County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Antrim County typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
How long is the growing season in Antrim County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Antrim County sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Oct 3, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Antrim County?
The federal record around Antrim County is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Antrim County's scale — its 5b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Antrim County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Michigan's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Antrim County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Antrim County's own scale — its own ~162-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 177 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Antrim County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Antrim County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Antrim CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 177 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Antrim County's boundary and the 304,441 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Antrim County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Antrim County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Antrim County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Antrim County — the ~162 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Antrim County's 304,441 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 177 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Antrim Countyread your own land →