Baraboo, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Baraboo, 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 Baraboo 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 Baraboo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baraboo — the short answer
Baraboo, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 5a is Baraboo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baraboo's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baraboo
Each reading below is measured for Baraboo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaraboo runs about 174 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
MeasuredBaraboo sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Baraboo is in
Baraboo sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baraboo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sauk County.
What Grows in Baraboo
Every plant below cleared Baraboo's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baraboo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. 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 Baraboo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baraboo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDUSTRIAL COILSToxics Release Inventory · 250 ft
- DEPPE ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- INDUSTRIAL COILS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CIRCUS WORLD MUSEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Riverside RentalsUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GERALD STICHUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Baraboo Ash St Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ARTHUR M SCHADDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Mc Arthur Hydro CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JIMS TRUCK REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Baraboo Tire & Auto CardtrolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FARMERS UNION CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baraboo'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 Baraboo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baraboo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baraboo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baraboo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Baraboo — Superfund (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (232 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Baraboo
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 Baraboo average
Your land is one point inside Baraboo
Everything above resolves to Baraboo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Baraboo Average
Baraboo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Baraboo
- ●One soil character for all of Baraboo
- ●Frost dates read at Baraboo's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baraboo's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baraboo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baraboo, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baraboo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baraboo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baraboo average
How we know this about Baraboo
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Baraboo’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Baraboo
When does frost risk typically end in Baraboo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baraboo typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Baraboo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baraboo 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 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baraboo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baraboo sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 1, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baraboo?
The federal record around Baraboo is a meaningful one — 330 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (232), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Baraboo?
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 Baraboo's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baraboo'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 Baraboo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baraboo's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,838 acres it covers and 330 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baraboo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baraboo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 15 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 330 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baraboo, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baraboo's boundary and the 4,838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baraboo's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baraboo's 4,838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sauk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sauk 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 Sauk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baraboo's 4,838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baraboo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,838 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Baraboo-wide figureread your own land →
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