Balsam Lake, 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 Balsam Lake, 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 Balsam Lake 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 Balsam Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Balsam Lake — the short answer
Balsam Lake, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- 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 4b is Balsam Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Balsam Lake's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Balsam Lake
Each reading below is measured for Balsam Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBalsam Lake runs about 172 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
MeasuredBalsam Lake 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 Balsam Lake is in
Balsam Lake sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Balsam Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Balsam Lake
Every plant below cleared Balsam Lake's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Balsam Lake?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Balsam Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Balsam Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOM TOM RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Minit Mart #503Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BALSAM LAKE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PEPERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PEPER SERVICEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- POLK CO HWY DEPT MATERIALS YARDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- GILLERS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FIX A DENT AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- POLK COUNTY HWY GARAGEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PK-34/17W/10-0010Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Polk County Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BALSAM BEACH RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Balsam Lake'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 Balsam Lake.
Total Sites
190
within ~10 miles of Balsam Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Balsam Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Balsam Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Balsam Lake
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 Balsam Lake average
Your land is one point inside Balsam Lake
Everything above resolves to Balsam Lake 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 Balsam Lake Average
Balsam Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Balsam Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Balsam Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Balsam Lake's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Balsam Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Balsam Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Balsam Lake, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Balsam Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Balsam Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Balsam Lake average
How we know this about Balsam Lake
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 Balsam Lake’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 Balsam Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Balsam Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Balsam Lake typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Balsam Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Balsam Lake typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Balsam Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Balsam Lake sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 1, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Balsam Lake?
The federal record around Balsam Lake shows 190 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Balsam Lake?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Balsam Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Balsam Lake'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 Balsam Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Balsam Lake's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,424 acres it covers and 190 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Balsam Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Balsam Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 15 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 190 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Balsam Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Balsam Lake's boundary and the 1,424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Balsam Lake'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 Balsam Lake's 1,424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Balsam Lake's 1,424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Balsam Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Balsam Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBalsam Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides