Bayfront, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Bayfront, 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 Bayfront 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 Bayfront — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bayfront — the short answer
Bayfront, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 912 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 912 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 Bayfront's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayfront's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayfront
Each reading below is measured for Bayfront itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBayfront runs about 170 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
MeasuredBayfront 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 Bayfront is in
Bayfront sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Bayfront's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ashland County.
What Grows in Bayfront
Every plant below cleared Bayfront's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayfront?
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 Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Bayfront
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayfront. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AS-48/03W/30-0068Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- AS-48/03W/29-0220Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- FARMERS LIVESTOCK MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Three Eagles Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GREAT LAKES GAS TRANSMISSION COBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- VERLYN CLARK SLUDGE DISPOSAL SITESuperfund · 1.7 mi
- AS-48/03W/28-0258Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- AS-48/03W/28-0257Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- AS-48/03W/28-0255Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- LARSON-JUHL US LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- LARSON-JUHL US LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- LARSON-JUHL PICTURE FRAMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayfront'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 Bayfront.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayfront
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayfront
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bayfront, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Bayfront. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bayfront
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 Bayfront average
Your land is one point inside Bayfront
Everything above resolves to Bayfront as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 912 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 Bayfront Average
Bayfront Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bayfront
- ●One soil character for all of Bayfront
- ●Frost dates read at Bayfront's scale: May 5 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayfront's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayfront
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayfront, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayfront averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayfront — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayfront average
How we know this about Bayfront
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 Bayfront’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 Bayfront
When does frost risk typically end in Bayfront?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayfront typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bayfront?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayfront typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayfront?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayfront sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Oct 8, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayfront?
The federal record around Bayfront is a meaningful one — 279 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Bayfront?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayfront's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayfront'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 Bayfront’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bayfront's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 912 acres it covers and 279 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayfront's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bayfront's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 22 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 279 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayfront, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayfront's boundary and the 912 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayfront'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 Bayfront's 912 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashland 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 Ashland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayfront's 912 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayfront you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 912 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Bayfront-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBayfront sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides