Adams, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Adams, 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 Adams 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 Adams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Adams — the short answer
Adams, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 4b is Adams's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Adams's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Adams
Each reading below is measured for Adams itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAdams runs about 164 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
MeasuredAdams sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Adams is in
Adams sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Adams's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Adams
Every plant below cleared Adams's own zone 4b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Adams?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Adams
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Adams. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AUTO AIDUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- AF MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FOUR SEASONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SCOTTIE REALTY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SCHMIDT OFFICE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DEPARTMENT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- A & F FOODLINER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WESTROCK CP LLCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- GTE - ADAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Cenex Pump 24Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PINEQUILIZER TREEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- EASTON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Adams'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 Adams.
Total Sites
136
within ~10 miles of Adams
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Adams
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Adams
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Adams, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 109 sites within ~10 miles of Adams. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Adams
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 Adams average
Your land is one point inside Adams
Everything above resolves to Adams 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 city 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 Adams Average
Adams Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Adams
- ●One soil character for all of Adams
- ●Frost dates read at Adams's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Adams's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Adams
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Adams, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Adams averages can't show:
We read public map data around Adams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Adams average
How we know this about Adams
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Adams’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Adams
When does frost risk typically end in Adams?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Adams typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Adams?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Adams typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Adams?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Adams sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 26, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Adams?
The federal record around Adams shows 136 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), 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 Adams?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Adams's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Adams'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 Adams’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Adams's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,885 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Adams's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Adams's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 10 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Adams, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Adams's boundary and the 1,885 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Adams'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 Adams's 1,885 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Adams's 1,885 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Adams you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,885 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 Adams-wide figureread your own land →
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