Bayfield, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bayfield, 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 Bayfield 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 Bayfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bayfield — the short answer
Bayfield, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 556 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 556 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 Bayfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayfield's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayfield
Each reading below is measured for Bayfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBayfield runs about 154 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
MeasuredBayfield 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 Bayfield is in
Bayfield sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Bayfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bayfield County.
What Grows in Bayfield
Every plant below cleared Bayfield's own zone 4b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Bayfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Outer IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAITH BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BAYFIELD HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2100 ft
- TOWN OF BAYFIELD - GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DEVILS ISLAND LIGHT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Outer Island Light HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SOUTH TWIN ISLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Superieur Petrol LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SUPERIEUR PETROLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- DONALD W MUELLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BAYFIELD FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CITY OF BAYFIELD FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayfield'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 Bayfield.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Bayfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayfield
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Bayfield
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 Bayfield average
Your land is one point inside Bayfield
Everything above resolves to Bayfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 556 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 Bayfield Average
Bayfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Bayfield
- ●One soil character for all of Bayfield
- ●Frost dates read at Bayfield's scale: May 6 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayfield's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayfield, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayfield average
How we know this about Bayfield
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 Bayfield’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 Bayfield
When does frost risk typically end in Bayfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayfield typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Bayfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayfield typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayfield sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 23, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayfield?
The federal record around Bayfield is a meaningful one — 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), 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 Bayfield?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayfield's scale — its 4b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayfield'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 Bayfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bayfield's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 556 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bayfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 7 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayfield's boundary and the 556 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayfield's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayfield's 556 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bayfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bayfield 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 Bayfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayfield's 556 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 556 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 Bayfield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Growing region
Nearby growing guides