Lake Gogebic, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Lake Gogebic, 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 Lake Gogebic 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 Lake Gogebic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Gogebic — the short answer
Lake Gogebic, Michigan: USDA zone 4a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 693 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- 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
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 693 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 4a is Lake Gogebic's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Gogebic's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Gogebic
Each reading below is measured for Lake Gogebic itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Gogebic runs about 144 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
MeasuredLake Gogebic sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Lake Gogebic is in
Lake Gogebic sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lake Gogebic's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ontonagon County.
What Grows in Lake Gogebic
Every plant below cleared Lake Gogebic's own zone 4a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Gogebic?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (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 Lake Gogebic
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Gogebic. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Maple Ridge Motel & BaitUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Lake Gogebic OutpostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Bergland FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Hoop 'n Holler IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Ewen-trout Creek School Dist.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Bergland Road Commission GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 48N 42W 04BADB01 ONTNGNNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 48N 43W 13CDDA 01 ONTONAGON CO (CO PARK)Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- Ontonagon County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 48N 42W 03BCAD01 ONTONAGON CO (BERGLAND DAM)Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- RUSS NORDINE TRUCKING & CONTRACTING COBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- Merryweather ProspectMining · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Gogebic'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 Lake Gogebic.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Gogebic
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Gogebic
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Gogebic, Mining runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Gogebic. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Gogebic
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 Lake Gogebic average
Your land is one point inside Lake Gogebic
Everything above resolves to Lake Gogebic as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 693 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 Lake Gogebic Average
Lake Gogebic Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Lake Gogebic
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Gogebic
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Gogebic's scale: May 13 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Gogebic's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Gogebic
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Gogebic, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Gogebic averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Gogebic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Gogebic average
How we know this about Lake Gogebic
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 Lake Gogebic’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 Lake Gogebic
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Gogebic?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Gogebic typically lands around May 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Lake Gogebic?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Gogebic 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 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Gogebic?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Gogebic sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 20, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Gogebic?
The federal record around Lake Gogebic is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Lake Gogebic?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lake Gogebic 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lake Gogebic's scale — its 4a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Gogebic'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 Lake Gogebic’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Gogebic's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 693 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Gogebic's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Gogebic's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Oct 4 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Gogebic, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Gogebic's boundary and the 693 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Gogebic'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 Lake Gogebic's 693 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 Lake Gogebic's 693 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Gogebic you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 693 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lake Gogebic-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Growing region
Nearby growing guides