Crawford County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Crawford County lies within the Northern Lower Michigan ("Up North") — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Crawford County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Crawford 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 Crawford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crawford County — the short answer
Crawford County, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 356K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 356K 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 5a is Crawford County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crawford County's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Crawford County
Across a year, Crawford County accumulates about 1,765 growing degree days above 50°F, about 335 fewer than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 18 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 Crawford County
Across Crawford County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Grayling, Graycalm, and Rubicon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally excessively drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.1–5.1, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Excessively drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
10%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Crawford County
The USDA soil survey maps 41% of Crawford County as excessively drained — but another 58% drains differently: 33% somewhat excessively drained, 10% very poorly drained.
Grayling is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Graycalm (27%) and Rubicon (8%).
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 Crawford County
Each reading below is measured for Crawford 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 Crawford County are 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 Crawford County runs about pH 4.1–5.1, 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
MeasuredCrawford County runs about 146 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
MeasuredCrawford County 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 Crawford County is in
Crawford County sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Crawford County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Crawford County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 146-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 Crawford County?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (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.
Documented around Crawford County
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Crawford County
USGS estimates 77 lb of Glyphosate on Crawford County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (36 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (22 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 Crawford County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Crawford County — 154 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Crawford County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Crawford County
Closest first, across Crawford County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARAUCO NA GRAYLING PARTICLEBOARDToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- Milltown Enterprises, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Camp Au SableUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Grayling Country Club, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Jims Well DrillingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- A.j.d. Forest Products IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Grayling Ind.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- MI DEPT/MILITARY & VETERANS AFFAIRSBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Camp Grayling - MatesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (B01-20022)Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- DAYTON FREIGHT LINES INCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- IMM INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crawford 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 Crawford County.
Total Sites
154
across Crawford County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Crawford County
Severity Distribution
across Crawford County
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Crawford 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 Crawford County average
Your land is one point inside Crawford County
Everything above resolves to Crawford County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 356K 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 Crawford County Average
Crawford County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Crawford County
- ●One soil character for all of Crawford County
- ●Frost dates read at Crawford County's scale: May 14 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crawford County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Crawford County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crawford County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crawford County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crawford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crawford County average
How we know this about Crawford 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 Crawford County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Crawford County
When does frost risk typically end in Crawford County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crawford County typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Crawford County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crawford County sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 23, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crawford County?
The federal record around Crawford County shows 154 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Crawford County?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Crawford County 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 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Crawford County's scale — its 5a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crawford 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 Crawford County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Crawford County's own scale — its own ~146-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 154 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crawford County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crawford County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Crawford CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 154 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Crawford County's boundary and the 356,107 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crawford County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Crawford County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Crawford 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 Crawford County — the ~146 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 Crawford County's 356,107 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 154 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 Crawford Countyread your own land →