Berlin, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Berlin, 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 Berlin 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 Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Berlin — the short answer
Berlin, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Berlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berlin's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berlin
Each reading below is measured for Berlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerlin runs about 186 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
MeasuredBerlin 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 Berlin is in
Berlin sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Berlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Green Lake County.
What Grows in Berlin
Every plant below cleared Berlin's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berlin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Berlin
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Berlin, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Berlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHNSON FORTNUM INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- Wisconsin Power & Light CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CITY OF BERLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CITY OF BERLIN WATER & SEWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CITY OF BERLIN POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- J C Penney Co/Berlin PharmacyUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- KOLPINUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SENIOR AMERICAN HOUSINGBrownfields · 850 ft
- Jeanette WesnerUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- BERLIN VET CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ROYAL HARMONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CITY OF BERLIN WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berlin'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 Berlin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berlin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 167 sites within ~10 miles of Berlin. 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 Berlin
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 Berlin average
Your land is one point inside Berlin
Everything above resolves to Berlin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Berlin Average
Berlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Berlin
- ●One soil character for all of Berlin
- ●Frost dates read at Berlin's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berlin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berlin, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berlin average
How we know this about Berlin
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 Berlin’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 Berlin
When does frost risk typically end in Berlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berlin typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Berlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berlin 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 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berlin sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berlin?
The federal record around Berlin is a meaningful one — 271 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (167), the nearest Brownfields 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 Berlin?
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 Berlin's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berlin'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 Berlin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Berlin's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,788 acres it covers and 271 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berlin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 271 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berlin, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berlin's boundary and the 3,788 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berlin's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Berlinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berlin's 3,788 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Green Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Green Lake 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 Green Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berlin's 3,788 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,788 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 Berlin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBerlin sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides