Three Lakes, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Three Lakes, 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 Three Lakes 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 Three Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Three Lakes — the short answer
Three Lakes, Michigan: USDA zone 4a, about 120 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~120
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Three Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Three Lakes's 120-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Three Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Three Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredThree Lakes runs about 120 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
MeasuredThree Lakes 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 Three Lakes is in
Three Lakes sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Three Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baraga County.
What Grows in Three Lakes
Every plant below cleared Three Lakes's own zone 4a and its 120-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Three Lakes?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Three Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Three Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Unnamed Copper ProspectMining · 1.1 mi
- LAKE RUTH MARINE INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Baraga County Road/spurr GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ARVON MERCURYSuperfund · 2.6 mi
- Michigamme MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Chuck Vis Cozy InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Former Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATION BRIDGE (BO1-52011)Brownfields · 9.2 mi
- 48N 29W 31 CB 01 MARQUETTE CO (CHAMPION HOME)Nitrate · 9.5 mi
- Unnamed Mineral ProspectMining · 9.9 mi
- Former-schwankes StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 10.0 mi
Measured from Three Lakes'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 Three Lakes.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Three Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Three Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Three Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Three Lakes
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 Three Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Three Lakes
Everything above resolves to Three Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Three Lakes Average
Three Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Three Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Three Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Three Lakes's scale: May 27 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Three Lakes's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Three Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Three Lakes, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Three Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Three Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Three Lakes average
How we know this about Three Lakes
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 Three Lakes’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 Three Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Three Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Three Lakes typically lands around May 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Three Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Three Lakes typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 120 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Three Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Three Lakes sees about 120 frost-free days — roughly May 27 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 17 to Sep 10, about 85 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Three Lakes?
The federal record around Three Lakes is a meaningful one — 16 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (5), the nearest Mining record about 1.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Three Lakes?
With about 120 frost-free days between hard freezes, Three Lakes 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 148 to 176 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 27 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Three Lakes's scale — its 4a band and its 120-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Three Lakes'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 Three Lakes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Three Lakes's own scale — its own ~120-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,836 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Three Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Three Lakes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 27 and Sep 24 and the ~120-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Three Lakes, the closest Mining record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Three Lakes's boundary and the 3,836 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~120-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Three Lakes'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 Three Lakes's 3,836 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baraga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baraga 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 Baraga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Three Lakes's 3,836 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Three Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,836 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.1 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 Three Lakes-wide figureread your own land →
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