Zeba, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Zeba, 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 Zeba 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 Zeba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Zeba — the short answer
Zeba, Michigan: USDA zone 5a, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- 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
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Zeba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zeba's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Zeba
Each reading below is measured for Zeba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredZeba runs about 142 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
MeasuredZeba 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 Zeba is in
Zeba sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Zeba's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baraga County.
What Grows in Zeba
Every plant below cleared Zeba's own zone 5a and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Zeba?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (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. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Zeba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Zeba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 51N 32W 19DCCC01 BARAGA CO (ZEBA)Nitrate · 2100 ft
- JOHNSON AND BERRY MFGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BARAGA 51N 32W 19CBBCNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 51N 32W 19CBBD 01 BARAGA CONitrate · 1.0 mi
- Lute's Corner Store IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Baraga County Memorial HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BARAGA 50N 33W 3CCBBNitrate · 2.3 mi
- BARAGA 50N R33W 4BBBCNitrate · 2.4 mi
- LANSE WWTPBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- BARAGA 51N 32W 8CDBDNitrate · 2.6 mi
- Camp Baraga (closed)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Reino Ketola LoggingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zeba'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 Zeba.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Zeba
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Zeba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Zeba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Zeba, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Zeba. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Zeba
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 Zeba average
Your land is one point inside Zeba
Everything above resolves to Zeba as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Zeba Average
Zeba Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Zeba
- ●One soil character for all of Zeba
- ●Frost dates read at Zeba's scale: May 22 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zeba's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Zeba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zeba, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zeba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zeba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zeba average
How we know this about Zeba
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 Zeba’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 Zeba
When does frost risk typically end in Zeba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zeba typically lands around May 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Zeba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Zeba 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 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Zeba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zeba sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 27, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Zeba?
The federal record around Zeba is a meaningful one — 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Zeba?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Zeba 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Zeba's scale — its 5a band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zeba'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 Zeba’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Zeba's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,310 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zeba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zeba's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Oct 11 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Zeba, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Zeba's boundary and the 2,310 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Zeba'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 Zeba's 2,310 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 Zeba's 2,310 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Zeba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,310 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Zeba-wide figureread your own land →
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