Fife Lake, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fife Lake, 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 Fife Lake 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 Fife Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fife Lake — the short answer
Fife Lake, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 465 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 465 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 Fife Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fife Lake's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fife Lake
Each reading below is measured for Fife Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFife Lake runs about 159 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
MeasuredFife Lake 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 Fife Lake is in
Fife Lake sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Fife Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grand Traverse County.
What Grows in Fife Lake
Every plant below cleared Fife Lake's own zone 5b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fife Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Fife Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fife Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MICHIGAN BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 600 ft
- Fife Lake AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Larrs Sporting GoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Village Of Fife LakeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 250912Nitrate · 1400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HAYES MFG INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- QUICK SAV FOOD STORES LTDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Beacon & Bridge Market #21Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FIFE LAKE AREA UTILITY AUTHORITYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Fife Lake Area Utility AuthorityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fife Lake'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 Fife Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fife Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fife Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fife Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Fife Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fife Lake
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 Fife Lake average
Your land is one point inside Fife Lake
Everything above resolves to Fife Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 465 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 Fife Lake Average
Fife Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Fife Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Fife Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Fife Lake's scale: May 8 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fife Lake's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fife Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fife Lake, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fife Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fife Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fife Lake average
How we know this about Fife Lake
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 Fife Lake’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 Fife Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Fife Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fife Lake 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.
When is the first frost in Fife Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fife Lake typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fife Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fife Lake sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 30, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fife Lake?
The federal record around Fife Lake shows 149 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (86), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Fife Lake?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fife Lake's scale — its 5b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fife Lake'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 Fife Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fife Lake's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 465 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fife Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fife Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 14 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fife Lake, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fife Lake's boundary and the 465 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fife Lake'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 Fife Lake's 465 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grand Traverse County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grand Traverse 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 Grand Traverse County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fife Lake's 465 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fife Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 465 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fife Lake-wide figureread your own land →