Babcock, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Babcock, 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 Babcock 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 Babcock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Babcock — the short answer
Babcock, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- 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 4b is Babcock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Babcock's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Babcock
Each reading below is measured for Babcock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBabcock runs about 168 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
MeasuredBabcock 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 Babcock is in
Babcock sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Babcock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wood County.
What Grows in Babcock
Every plant below cleared Babcock's own zone 4b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Babcock?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Babcock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Babcock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WD-21/03E/14-0054Nitrate · 700 ft
- Town Of RemingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BABCOCK RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WI DNR BABCOCK RANGER STATIONBrownfields · 850 ft
- WISCONSIN CENTRAL LTD BABCOCK CARHOUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AGNES SCOTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WD-21/03E/14-0456Nitrate · 1500 ft
- WISCONSIN CENTRAL LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- OCEAN SPRAY CRANBERRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MARTINOVICH TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- COUNTRY AIRE CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Babcock'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 Babcock.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Babcock
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Babcock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Babcock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Babcock, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Babcock. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Babcock
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 Babcock average
Your land is one point inside Babcock
Everything above resolves to Babcock 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 Babcock Average
Babcock Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Babcock
- ●One soil character for all of Babcock
- ●Frost dates read at Babcock's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Babcock's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Babcock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Babcock, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Babcock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Babcock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Babcock average
How we know this about Babcock
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 Babcock’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 Babcock
When does frost risk typically end in Babcock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Babcock typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Babcock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Babcock typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Babcock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Babcock sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 28, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Babcock?
The federal record around Babcock shows 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Babcock?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Babcock's scale — its 4b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Babcock'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 Babcock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Babcock's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,985 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Babcock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Babcock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 12 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Babcock, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Babcock's boundary and the 1,985 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Babcock'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 Babcock's 1,985 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wood 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 Wood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Babcock's 1,985 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Babcock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,985 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Babcock-wide figureread your own land →
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