Grawn, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grawn, 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 Grawn 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 Grawn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grawn — the short answer
Grawn, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 417 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 417 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 6a is Grawn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grawn's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grawn
Each reading below is measured for Grawn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrawn runs about 177 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
MeasuredGrawn sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Grawn is in
Grawn sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grawn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grand Traverse County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Grawn
Every plant below cleared Grawn's own zone 6a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grawn?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Grawn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grawn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARLS TIRE RETREADING SITESuperfund · 1400 ft
- Grawn Shell Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 26N 11W 07CBB01 GRAND TRAVERSE CO (261107)Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Robert HerknerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Vans Disposal ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Cherryland Elect CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Wickes LumberUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Jay Rogers BuildersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WOLVERINE POWER SUPPLY COOPERATIVE INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- NEW WAVE MOBILE OIL CHANGE LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- H. Cox & Son, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHERRY GROWERS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grawn'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 Grawn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grawn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grawn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grawn, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Grawn. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Grawn
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 Grawn average
Your land is one point inside Grawn
Everything above resolves to Grawn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 417 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 Grawn Average
Grawn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Grawn
- ●One soil character for all of Grawn
- ●Frost dates read at Grawn's scale: May 3 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grawn's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grawn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grawn, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grawn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grawn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grawn average
How we know this about Grawn
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 Grawn’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 Grawn
When does frost risk typically end in Grawn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grawn typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Grawn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grawn typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grawn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grawn sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 13, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grawn?
The federal record around Grawn runs heavier than most — 842 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (329), the nearest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Grawn?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grawn's scale — its 6a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grawn'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 Grawn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grawn's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 417 acres it covers and 842 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grawn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grawn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 27 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 842 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grawn, the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grawn's boundary and the 417 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Grawn sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grawn's 417 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 Grawn's 417 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grawn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 417 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.3 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 Grawn-wide figureread your own land →