Omena, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Omena, 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 Omena 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 Omena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Omena — the short answer
Omena, Michigan: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6b is Omena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Omena's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Omena
Each reading below is measured for Omena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOmena runs about 195 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
MeasuredOmena sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Omena is in
Omena sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Omena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Leelanau County.
What Grows in Omena
Every plant below cleared Omena's own zone 6b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Omena?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Omena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Omena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kal Excavating CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Keith BrownUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J P MORGAN CHASE NABrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Walter Gardner EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Busby Oil & PropaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GRAND TRAVERSE BAND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- FRIGID FOODSSuperfund · 3.2 mi
- Camps Leelanau & KohahnaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Cherry Home OrchardsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Northern Michigan Fruit CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Leelanau Memorial HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- RICHARDSON JAMESBrownfields · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Omena'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 Omena.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Omena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Omena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Omena
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Omena
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 Omena average
Your land is one point inside Omena
Everything above resolves to Omena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Omena Average
Omena Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Omena
- ●One soil character for all of Omena
- ●Frost dates read at Omena's scale: May 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Omena's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Omena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Omena, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Omena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Omena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Omena average
How we know this about Omena
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 Omena’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 Omena
When does frost risk typically end in Omena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Omena typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Omena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Omena typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Omena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Omena sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 29, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Omena?
The federal record around Omena is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Omena?
From about Oct 13 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 Nov 12 (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 Nov 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Omena's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Omena'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 Omena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Omena's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,892 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Omena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Omena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Nov 12 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Omena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Omena's boundary and the 2,892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Omena's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Omena's 2,892 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leelanau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leelanau 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 Leelanau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Omena's 2,892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Omena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Omena-wide figureread your own land →