Bellevue, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bellevue, 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 Bellevue 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 Bellevue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bellevue — the short answer
Bellevue, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Bellevue's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellevue's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellevue
Each reading below is measured for Bellevue itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellevue runs about 185 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
MeasuredBellevue 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 Bellevue is in
Bellevue sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellevue's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Bellevue
Every plant below cleared Bellevue's own zone 5b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellevue?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Bellevue
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellevue. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LLOYD MEACHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BELLEVUE BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BELLEVUE BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE #4915Brownfields · 1600 ft
- CQM INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- DORSCH FORDBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Lous One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CALIBER COLLISION CENTERS - GREEN BAY - SOUTHEAST 3808Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Mills Fleet FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILLS FLEET FARMBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Steffens Court MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EXPRESS CONVENIENCE CENTER #91Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellevue'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 Bellevue.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellevue
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellevue
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellevue, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 111 sites within ~10 miles of Bellevue. 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 Bellevue
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 Bellevue average
Your land is one point inside Bellevue
Everything above resolves to Bellevue as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Bellevue Average
Bellevue Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Bellevue
- ●One soil character for all of Bellevue
- ●Frost dates read at Bellevue's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellevue's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellevue
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellevue, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellevue averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellevue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellevue average
How we know this about Bellevue
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 Bellevue’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 Bellevue
When does frost risk typically end in Bellevue?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellevue typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Bellevue?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellevue typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellevue?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellevue sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 9, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellevue?
The federal record around Bellevue is a meaningful one — 1,638 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (845), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bellevue?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bellevue's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellevue'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 Bellevue’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellevue's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,242 acres it covers and 1,638 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellevue's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellevue's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 23 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,638 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellevue, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellevue's boundary and the 9,242 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellevue'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 Bellevue's 9,242 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellevue's 9,242 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellevue you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,242 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bellevue-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBellevue sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides