Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Baileys Harbor, 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 Baileys Harbor 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 Baileys Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baileys Harbor — the short answer
Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Baileys Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baileys Harbor's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baileys Harbor
Each reading below is measured for Baileys Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaileys Harbor runs about 195 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
MeasuredBaileys Harbor sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Baileys Harbor is in
Baileys Harbor sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baileys Harbor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Door County.
What Grows in Baileys Harbor
Every plant below cleared Baileys Harbor's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baileys Harbor?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Baileys Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baileys Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DR-30/28E/20-0028Nitrate · 2500 ft
- NELSON SHOPPING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WASHICHEK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NEWPORT STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- KOSER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Baileys Harbor Town MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SILVER GULLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KIEHNAUS SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Kiehnaus Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FAST FREDDYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Baileys 57Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PARENT CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baileys Harbor'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 Baileys Harbor.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Baileys Harbor
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baileys Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baileys Harbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baileys Harbor, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of Baileys Harbor. 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 Baileys Harbor
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 Baileys Harbor average
Your land is one point inside Baileys Harbor
Everything above resolves to Baileys Harbor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Baileys Harbor Average
Baileys Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Baileys Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of Baileys Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at Baileys Harbor's scale: Apr 23 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baileys Harbor's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baileys Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baileys Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baileys Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baileys Harbor average
How we know this about Baileys Harbor
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 Baileys Harbor’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 Baileys Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in Baileys Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baileys Harbor typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Baileys Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baileys Harbor typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baileys Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baileys Harbor sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 21, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baileys Harbor?
The federal record around Baileys Harbor shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Baileys Harbor?
From about Oct 5 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 Nov 4 (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 Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baileys Harbor's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baileys Harbor'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 Baileys Harbor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baileys Harbor's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,080 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baileys Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baileys Harbor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Nov 4 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baileys Harbor, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baileys Harbor's boundary and the 1,080 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baileys Harbor'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 Baileys Harbor's 1,080 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Door County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Door 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 Door County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baileys Harbor's 1,080 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baileys Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,080 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Baileys Harbor-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Growing region
Nearby growing guides