Ubly, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ubly, 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 Ubly 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 Ubly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ubly — the short answer
Ubly, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 842 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 842 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 6a is Ubly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ubly's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ubly
Each reading below is measured for Ubly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUbly runs about 181 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
MeasuredUbly sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Ubly is in
Ubly sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ubly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huron County.
What Grows in Ubly
Every plant below cleared Ubly's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ubly?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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.
Documented around Ubly
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ubly checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ubly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ubly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ubly Community SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Ubly Tractor Sales, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Village Mini MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Fast Freddie'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GEMINI-PEPRO ENTERPRISES-UBLYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- FILLION MANUFACTURING & ENGINEERING INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 15N 13E 22BBBC 01 HURON CO (BINGHAM TWP, H-5R)Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- FILION MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- VALLEY ENTERPRISES,INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- PEPRO ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- JOHN DEERE RENEWABLES LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Frank's Country MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ubly'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 Ubly.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Ubly
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ubly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ubly
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ubly
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 Ubly average
Your land is one point inside Ubly
Everything above resolves to Ubly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 842 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 Ubly Average
Ubly Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ubly
- ●One soil character for all of Ubly
- ●Frost dates read at Ubly's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ubly's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ubly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ubly, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ubly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ubly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ubly average
How we know this about Ubly
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 Ubly’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 Ubly
When does frost risk typically end in Ubly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ubly typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Ubly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ubly typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ubly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ubly sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 9, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ubly?
The federal record around Ubly shows 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ubly?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ubly's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ubly'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 Ubly’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ubly's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 842 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ubly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ubly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 23 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ubly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ubly's boundary and the 842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ubly's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ubly checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ubly's 842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huron 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 Huron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ubly's 842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ubly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ubly-wide figureread your own land →
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