Ewen, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ewen, 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 Ewen 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 Ewen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ewen — the short answer
Ewen, Michigan: USDA zone 4b, about 140 days between hard freezes, across 540 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~140
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 540 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 4b is Ewen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ewen's 140-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ewen
Each reading below is measured for Ewen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEwen runs about 140 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
MeasuredEwen sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Ewen is in
Ewen sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Ewen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ontonagon County.
What Grows in Ewen
Every plant below cleared Ewen's own zone 4b and its 140-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ewen?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Ewen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ewen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gitche Gumee Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BIG VALLEY INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- Ewen Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 48N 40W 27ACAB01 ONTONAGON CO (NO. 3)Nitrate · 1500 ft
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (B06-66022)Brownfields · 3.2 mi
- Ontonagon County RoadUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- COUNTY OF ONTONAGON ROAD COMMISSIONBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- ALS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- TRUCKS ETCETERA ETCBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- Settler's Coperative's IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Big Valley Ford IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- White Tail Tire CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ewen'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 Ewen.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ewen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ewen
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Ewen
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 Ewen average
Your land is one point inside Ewen
Everything above resolves to Ewen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 540 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 Ewen Average
Ewen Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Ewen
- ●One soil character for all of Ewen
- ●Frost dates read at Ewen's scale: May 17 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ewen's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ewen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ewen, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ewen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ewen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ewen average
How we know this about Ewen
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 Ewen’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 Ewen
When does frost risk typically end in Ewen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ewen typically lands around May 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Ewen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ewen typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 140 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ewen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ewen sees about 140 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 20, about 105 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ewen?
The federal record around Ewen is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Ewen?
With about 140 frost-free days between hard freezes, Ewen 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 168 to 196 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Ewen's scale — its 4b band and its 140-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ewen'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 Ewen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ewen's own scale — its own ~140-day season between 28°F freezes, the 540 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ewen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ewen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 4 and the ~140-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ewen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ewen's boundary and the 540 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~140-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ewen'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 Ewen's 540 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ontonagon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ontonagon 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 Ontonagon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ewen's 540 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ewen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 540 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ewen-wide figureread your own land →
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