Alma Center, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Alma Center, 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 Alma Center 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 Alma Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alma Center — the short answer
Alma Center, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 641 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 641 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 Alma Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alma Center's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alma Center
Each reading below is measured for Alma Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlma Center runs about 158 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
MeasuredAlma Center 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 Alma Center is in
Alma Center sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alma Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Alma Center
Every plant below cleared Alma Center's own zone 4b and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alma Center?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Alma Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alma Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRUCES SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- VILLAGE GAS & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Alma Center Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Town Of Alma Center ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SCHOOL DIST ALMA CENTER SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SEGUIN LUMBER & BUILDING SPLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- JA-23/04W/30-0010Nitrate · 700 ft
- DONALD MATALASUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ALMA CENTER VILLAGE HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- HERBERT COMSTOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ALMA CENTER HUMBIRD MERRILLAN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Strawberry Square Express MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alma Center'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 Alma Center.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Alma Center
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alma Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alma Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alma Center, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 101 sites within ~10 miles of Alma Center. 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 Alma Center
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 Alma Center average
Your land is one point inside Alma Center
Everything above resolves to Alma Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 641 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 Alma Center Average
Alma Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Alma Center
- ●One soil character for all of Alma Center
- ●Frost dates read at Alma Center's scale: May 1 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alma Center's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alma Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alma Center, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alma Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alma Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alma Center average
How we know this about Alma Center
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 Alma Center’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 Alma Center
When does frost risk typically end in Alma Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alma Center typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Alma Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alma Center typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alma Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alma Center sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 22, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alma Center?
The federal record around Alma Center shows 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), 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 Alma Center?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alma Center's scale — its 4b band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alma Center'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 Alma Center’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alma Center's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 641 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alma Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alma Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 6 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alma Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alma Center's boundary and the 641 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alma Center's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alma Center's 641 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alma Center's 641 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alma Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 641 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 Alma Center-wide figureread your own land →