Abrams, Wisconsin, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Abrams, 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 Abrams 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 Abrams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Abrams — the short answer
Abrams, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 528 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 528 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 Abrams's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Abrams's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Abrams
Each reading below is measured for Abrams itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAbrams 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
MeasuredAbrams 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 Abrams is in
Abrams sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Abrams's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oconto County.
What Grows in Abrams
Every plant below cleared Abrams's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Abrams?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Abrams
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Abrams. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Jerrys Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ABRAMS FEED & GRAIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ABRAMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ZERNICKE TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ADRIS VAN BELLINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- QUALITY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ARTHUR DELZERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TOWN OF ABRAMS GRADER SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- T AND T AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Pine Acres Golf Grounds & Maintenance BldgUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Abrams Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JAMES DUFFYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Abrams'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 Abrams.
Total Sites
210
within ~10 miles of Abrams
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Abrams
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Abrams
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Abrams, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 153 sites within ~10 miles of Abrams. 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 Abrams
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 Abrams average
Your land is one point inside Abrams
Everything above resolves to Abrams as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 528 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 Abrams Average
Abrams Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Abrams
- ●One soil character for all of Abrams
- ●Frost dates read at Abrams's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Abrams's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Abrams
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Abrams, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Abrams averages can't show:
We read public map data around Abrams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Abrams average
How we know this about Abrams
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 Abrams’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 Abrams
When does frost risk typically end in Abrams?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Abrams typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Abrams?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Abrams typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Abrams?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Abrams sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 3, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Abrams?
The federal record around Abrams is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Abrams?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Abrams's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Abrams'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 Abrams’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Abrams's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 528 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Abrams's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Abrams's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 17 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Abrams, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Abrams's boundary and the 528 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Abrams's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Abrams's 528 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oconto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oconto County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Oconto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Abrams's 528 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Abrams you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 528 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 Abrams-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinAbrams sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides