Black Creek, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Black Creek, 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 Black Creek 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 Black Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Black Creek — the short answer
Black Creek, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 638 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 638 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 Black Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black Creek's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black Creek
Each reading below is measured for Black Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlack Creek runs about 181 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
MeasuredBlack Creek 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 Black Creek is in
Black Creek sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Black Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Outagamie County.
What Grows in Black Creek
Every plant below cleared Black Creek's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black Creek?
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 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 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Black Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GORDON KAPHINGST EST GERMAINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WICKESBERG PLG & HTGUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- FOX VALLEY & WESTERN LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- OU-23/17E/09-0071Nitrate · 600 ft
- PRECISION FOREST PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BRANDT IMPLEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SAPUTO CHEESE USA INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SAPUTO CHEESE USA INC - BLACK CREEK DIVToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- Saputo Cheese Usa IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Rons ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- REDS TIRE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BLACK CREEK OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black Creek'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 Black Creek.
Total Sites
198
within ~10 miles of Black Creek
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Black Creek — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (158 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Black Creek
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 Black Creek average
Your land is one point inside Black Creek
Everything above resolves to Black Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 638 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 Black Creek Average
Black Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Black Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Black Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Black Creek's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black Creek, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Creek average
How we know this about Black Creek
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 Black Creek’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 Black Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Black Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black Creek 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 Black Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black Creek 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black Creek sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 5, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black Creek?
The federal record around Black Creek shows 198 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (158), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Black Creek?
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 Black Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black Creek'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 Black Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Black Creek's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 638 acres it covers and 198 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Black Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 19 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 198 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black Creek's boundary and the 638 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Black Creek'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 Black Creek's 638 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Outagamie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Outagamie 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 Outagamie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Black Creek's 638 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 638 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 Black Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBlack Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides