Belgium, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Belgium, 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 Belgium 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 Belgium — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Belgium — the short answer
Belgium, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Belgium's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belgium's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belgium
Each reading below is measured for Belgium itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelgium runs about 201 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
MeasuredBelgium sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Belgium is in
Belgium sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belgium's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ozaukee County.
What Grows in Belgium
Every plant below cleared Belgium's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belgium?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Belgium
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belgium. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OZ-12/22E/15-0055Nitrate · 1100 ft
- WESTER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- C G COLLISIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BELGIUM FOUNDRY CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- ROBERT ROTHMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LAKESIDE FOODS INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- LAKESIDE FOODS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BELGIUM ELEVATOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Krier Foods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LANSER GARAGE & TOWING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ALLEN BABICKYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JOHN A JENTGESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belgium'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 Belgium.
Total Sites
481
within ~10 miles of Belgium
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belgium
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belgium
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belgium, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Belgium — CAFO (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Belgium
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 Belgium average
Your land is one point inside Belgium
Everything above resolves to Belgium as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Belgium Average
Belgium Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Belgium
- ●One soil character for all of Belgium
- ●Frost dates read at Belgium's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belgium's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belgium
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belgium, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belgium averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belgium — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belgium average
How we know this about Belgium
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 Belgium’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 Belgium
When does frost risk typically end in Belgium?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belgium typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Belgium?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belgium typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belgium?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belgium sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 18, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belgium?
The federal record around Belgium is a meaningful one — 481 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (267), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Belgium?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belgium's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belgium'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 Belgium’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belgium's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,375 acres it covers and 481 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belgium's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belgium's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 1 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 481 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belgium, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belgium's boundary and the 1,375 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belgium'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 Belgium's 1,375 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ozaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ozaukee 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 Ozaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belgium's 1,375 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belgium you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,375 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Belgium-wide figureread your own land →