Skidway Lake, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Skidway 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 Skidway 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 Skidway Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Skidway Lake — the short answer
Skidway Lake, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 5a is Skidway Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Skidway Lake's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Skidway Lake
Each reading below is measured for Skidway Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSkidway Lake runs about 161 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
MeasuredSkidway Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Skidway Lake is in
Skidway Lake sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Skidway Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ogemaw County.
What Grows in Skidway Lake
Every plant below cleared Skidway Lake's own zone 5a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Skidway Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 11 — 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 Skidway Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Skidway Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Raymond HorningUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Avrams Fuel ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Mills Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ATLAS COLLISIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Alltel Michigan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- PRESCOTT PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Ottaco IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Mcgregors Kountry StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Lake Ogemaw Marina & Boat Storage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- COBRA OIL & GAS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Warren D Moore PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Skidway 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 Skidway Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Skidway Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Skidway Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Skidway Lake, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Skidway Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Skidway 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 Skidway Lake average
Your land is one point inside Skidway Lake
Everything above resolves to Skidway Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Skidway Lake Average
Skidway Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Skidway Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Skidway Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Skidway Lake's scale: May 3 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Skidway Lake's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Skidway Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Skidway Lake, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Skidway Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Skidway Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Skidway Lake average
How we know this about Skidway 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 Skidway 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 Skidway Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Skidway Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Skidway Lake 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 Skidway Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Skidway Lake typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Skidway Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Skidway Lake sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 27, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Skidway Lake?
The federal record around Skidway Lake shows 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Skidway Lake?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Skidway Lake's scale — its 5a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Skidway 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 Skidway Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Skidway Lake's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,226 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Skidway Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Skidway Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 11 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Skidway Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Skidway Lake's boundary and the 7,226 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Skidway 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 Skidway Lake's 7,226 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ogemaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ogemaw 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 Ogemaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Skidway Lake's 7,226 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Skidway 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 7,226 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Skidway Lake-wide figureread your own land →