South Range, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in South Range, 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 South Range 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 South Range — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Range — the short answer
South Range, Michigan: USDA zone 5b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 233 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 233 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 South Range's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Range's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Range
Each reading below is measured for South Range itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Range runs about 170 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
MeasuredSouth Range 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 South Range is in
South Range sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at South Range's own centroid rather than borrowed from Houghton County.
What Grows in South Range
Every plant below cleared South Range's own zone 5b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Range?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near South Range
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Range. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTH RANGE PUBLIC WORKS GARAGEBrownfields · 100 ft
- George Hocking Const CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- South Range StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Usitalos ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CamPioni ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Northern Hardwoods Div.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ROSSI AMERICAN HARDWOODSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Wheal Kate ProspectMining · 0.6 mi
- Baltic AmygdaloidMining · 0.6 mi
- Baltic MineMining · 0.6 mi
- UPPER PENINSULA POWER COMPANYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Portage CT Generating StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Range'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 South Range.
Total Sites
276
within ~10 miles of South Range
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Range
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Range
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Range, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Range — Mining (68 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in South Range
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 South Range average
Your land is one point inside South Range
Everything above resolves to South Range as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 233 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 South Range Average
South Range Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across South Range
- ●One soil character for all of South Range
- ●Frost dates read at South Range's scale: May 2 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Range's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Range
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Range, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Range averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Range — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Range average
How we know this about South Range
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 South Range’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 South Range
When does frost risk typically end in South Range?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Range typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in South Range?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Range typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Range?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Range sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 5, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Range?
The federal record around South Range is a meaningful one — 276 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (97), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 South Range?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Range's scale — its 5b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Range'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 South Range’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Range's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 233 acres it covers and 276 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Range's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Range's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 19 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 276 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Range, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Range's boundary and the 233 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Range'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 South Range's 233 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Houghton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Houghton 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 Houghton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Range's 233 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Range you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 233 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 South Range-wide figureread your own land →
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