Arkansaw, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arkansaw, 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 Arkansaw 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 Arkansaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arkansaw — the short answer
Arkansaw, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 468 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 468 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 Arkansaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arkansaw's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arkansaw
Each reading below is measured for Arkansaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArkansaw runs about 184 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
MeasuredArkansaw 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 Arkansaw is in
Arkansaw sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arkansaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pepin County.
What Grows in Arkansaw
Every plant below cleared Arkansaw's own zone 4b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arkansaw?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Arkansaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arkansaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARKANSAW MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RONALD ASHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- STEVE BECHELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- G & W Body ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ANDERSON AUTO COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Bert GrochowskiUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RON HARTUNGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RENZ TRUCKING & EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PP-25/14W/24-0044Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- PEPIN COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- DURAND IMPLEMENTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- POLZERS GARAGE INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arkansaw'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 Arkansaw.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Arkansaw
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arkansaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arkansaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arkansaw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arkansaw — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (81 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Arkansaw
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 Arkansaw average
Your land is one point inside Arkansaw
Everything above resolves to Arkansaw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 468 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 Arkansaw Average
Arkansaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Arkansaw
- ●One soil character for all of Arkansaw
- ●Frost dates read at Arkansaw's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arkansaw's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arkansaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arkansaw, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arkansaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arkansaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arkansaw average
How we know this about Arkansaw
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 Arkansaw’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 Arkansaw
When does frost risk typically end in Arkansaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arkansaw typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Arkansaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arkansaw typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arkansaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arkansaw sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 6, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arkansaw?
The federal record around Arkansaw is a meaningful one — 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 I protect my plants from frost in Arkansaw?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arkansaw's scale — its 4b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arkansaw'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 Arkansaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arkansaw's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 468 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arkansaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arkansaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 20 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arkansaw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arkansaw's boundary and the 468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arkansaw's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arkansaw's 468 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pepin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pepin 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 Pepin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arkansaw's 468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arkansaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 468 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Arkansaw-wide figureread your own land →
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