Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beaver Dam, 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 Beaver Dam 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 Beaver Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beaver Dam — the short answer
Beaver Dam, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- 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 Beaver Dam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beaver Dam's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beaver Dam
Each reading below is measured for Beaver Dam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeaver Dam runs about 187 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
MeasuredBeaver Dam 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 Beaver Dam is in
Beaver Dam sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beaver Dam's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dodge County.
What Grows in Beaver Dam
Every plant below cleared Beaver Dam's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beaver Dam?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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.
Documented around Beaver Dam
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Beaver Dam, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beaver Dam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beaver Dam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HANEFELD BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Fischbach Tires LtdUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CITY OF BEAVER DAM RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CITY RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Coyote Enterprises LtdUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BRAATZ PETROLEUM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- JOHNSON PLANT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- TAYLOR RENTAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PILLSBURY GREEN GIANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WMFB INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- BEAVER DAM GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Caseys General Store #2005Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beaver Dam'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 Beaver Dam.
Total Sites
399
within ~10 miles of Beaver Dam
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beaver Dam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beaver Dam
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beaver Dam, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 253 sites within ~10 miles of Beaver Dam. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Beaver Dam
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 Beaver Dam average
Your land is one point inside Beaver Dam
Everything above resolves to Beaver Dam 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 Beaver Dam Average
Beaver Dam Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Beaver Dam
- ●One soil character for all of Beaver Dam
- ●Frost dates read at Beaver Dam's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beaver Dam's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beaver Dam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beaver Dam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beaver Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beaver Dam average
How we know this about Beaver Dam
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 Beaver Dam’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 Beaver Dam
When does frost risk typically end in Beaver Dam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver Dam typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Beaver Dam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beaver Dam typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beaver Dam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beaver Dam sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 5, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beaver Dam?
The federal record around Beaver Dam is a meaningful one — 399 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (253), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Beaver Dam?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beaver Dam's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beaver Dam'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 Beaver Dam’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beaver Dam's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,751 acres it covers and 399 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beaver Dam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beaver Dam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 19 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 399 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beaver Dam, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beaver Dam's boundary and the 4,751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beaver Dam's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Beaver Damlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beaver Dam's 4,751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dodge 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 Dodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beaver Dam's 4,751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beaver Dam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,751 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Beaver Dam-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBeaver Dam sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.