Big Falls, 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.
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 Big Falls, 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 Big Falls 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 Big Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Falls — the short answer
Big Falls, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 303 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 Big Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Falls's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Falls
Each reading below is measured for Big Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Falls runs about 170 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
MeasuredBig Falls 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 Big Falls is in
Big Falls sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waupaca County.
What Grows in Big Falls
Every plant below cleared Big Falls's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Falls?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Big Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ZIMMERMANS GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Henry ZietlowUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Dave StewartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RADIES CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TIGERTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- WP-25/13E/31-0794Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- WP-25/13E/29-1954Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- KASTLE KAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- STEINHIE BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Shawano County Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- DUPONT CHEESEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Jerome AlftUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Falls'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 Big Falls.
Total Sites
170
within ~10 miles of Big Falls
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 140 sites within ~10 miles of Big Falls. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Big Falls
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 Big Falls average
Your land is one point inside Big Falls
Everything above resolves to Big Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Big Falls Average
Big Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Big Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Big Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Big Falls's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Falls, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Falls average
How we know this about Big Falls
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 Big Falls’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 Big Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Big Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Falls typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Big Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Falls typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Falls sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Falls?
The federal record around Big Falls shows 170 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Big Falls?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Falls'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 Big Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Falls's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 170 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 15 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 170 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Falls's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Falls's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Falls's 303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waupaca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waupaca 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 Waupaca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Falls's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 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 Big Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBig Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides