Gladwin County, in Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Gladwin County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Gladwin 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 Gladwin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gladwin County — the short answer
Gladwin County, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 321K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 321K 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 Gladwin County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gladwin County's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Gladwin County
Across a year, Gladwin County accumulates about 2,150 growing degree days above 50°F, about 50 more than the middle Michigan county — ahead of 45 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 Gladwin County
Across Gladwin County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Nester, Roscommon, and Brevort are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
36%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Gladwin County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Gladwin County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 67% drains differently: 28% poorly drained, 12% well drained.
Nester is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Roscommon (8%) and Brevort (5%).
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 Gladwin County
Each reading below is measured for Gladwin 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 Gladwin County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Gladwin County runs about pH 5.5–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGladwin County runs about 174 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
MeasuredGladwin 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 Gladwin County is in
Gladwin County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (92%) and Huron/Erie Lake Plains (8%). 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 Gladwin County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Gladwin County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 174-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 Gladwin County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Gladwin County
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Gladwin County
USGS estimates 13,196 lb of Glyphosate on Gladwin County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,406 lb) and 2,4-d (2,697 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 Gladwin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Gladwin County — 181 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Gladwin 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 Gladwin County
Closest first, across Gladwin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Beacon & Bridge Market #20Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Wooden Shoe Marina IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MI DEPT/NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Acketts Country CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- State A Hdq.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KOCUR KIEW AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- 51 SECORD 1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- GLADWIN CONTRACTINGBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Winegars Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Beaverton Rural SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LANCER BUILDERS INCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- D & W FINE PACKBrownfields · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gladwin 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 Gladwin County.
Total Sites
181
across Gladwin County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Gladwin County
Severity Distribution
across Gladwin 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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Gladwin 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 Gladwin County average
Your land is one point inside Gladwin County
Everything above resolves to Gladwin County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 321K 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 Gladwin County Average
Gladwin County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Gladwin County
- ●One soil character for all of Gladwin County
- ●Frost dates read at Gladwin County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gladwin County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Gladwin County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gladwin County, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gladwin County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gladwin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gladwin County average
How we know this about Gladwin 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 Gladwin County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Gladwin County
When does frost risk typically end in Gladwin County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gladwin County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Gladwin County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gladwin County sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 5, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gladwin County?
The federal record around Gladwin County shows 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Gladwin County's scale — its 5b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gladwin 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 Gladwin County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Gladwin County's own scale — its own ~174-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 181 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gladwin County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gladwin County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Gladwin CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 181 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Gladwin County's boundary and the 321,144 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Gladwin County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Gladwin County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Gladwin 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 Gladwin County — the ~174 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 Gladwin County's 321,144 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 181 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 Gladwin Countyread your own land →