Bayside, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bayside, 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 Bayside 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 Bayside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bayside — the short answer
Bayside, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6a is Bayside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayside's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayside
Each reading below is measured for Bayside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBayside runs about 216 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBayside sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bayside is in
Bayside sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bayside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in Bayside
Every plant below cleared Bayside's own zone 6a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayside?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Bayside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAYSIDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 250 ft
- BAYSIDE VILLAGE OF ELLSWORTH PKBrownfields · 250 ft
- FOX POINT/BAYSIDE-MIDDLE SCHLUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Village Of Bayside Communications CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ML-08/22E/05-0441Nitrate · 1700 ft
- KATZ PROPERTIESBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Bayside Service LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BAYSIDE SERVICE LLCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ML-08/22E/09-0416Nitrate · 2600 ft
- ML-08/22E/05-0320Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- ML-08/22E/05-0319Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS #703415Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayside'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 Bayside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bayside, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 203 sites within ~10 miles of Bayside. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bayside
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 Bayside average
Your land is one point inside Bayside
Everything above resolves to Bayside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Bayside Average
Bayside Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bayside
- ●One soil character for all of Bayside
- ●Frost dates read at Bayside's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayside's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayside, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayside average
How we know this about Bayside
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 Bayside’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 Bayside
When does frost risk typically end in Bayside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayside typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Bayside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayside typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayside sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 25, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayside?
The federal record around Bayside runs heavier than most — 3,153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,591), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bayside?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayside's scale — its 6a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayside'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 Bayside’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bayside's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,527 acres it covers and 3,153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bayside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 8 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayside, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayside's boundary and the 1,527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayside's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayside's 1,527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Milwaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayside's 1,527 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,527 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bayside-wide figureread your own land →