Blanchardville, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Blanchardville, 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 Blanchardville 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 Blanchardville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blanchardville — the short answer
Blanchardville, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 348 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 348 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 Blanchardville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blanchardville's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blanchardville
Each reading below is measured for Blanchardville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlanchardville runs about 173 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
MeasuredBlanchardville 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 Blanchardville is in
Blanchardville sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blanchardville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette County.
What Grows in Blanchardville
Every plant below cleared Blanchardville's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blanchardville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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. 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 Blanchardville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blanchardville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WATRUD STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ENGSTAD MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BLANCHARDVILLE COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Blanchardville Coop OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MARK BRUENENFELDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BLANCHARDVILLE COOP OIL ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Former Old Dairyman SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LF-04/05E/23-0070Nitrate · 950 ft
- YORK TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CLAYTON SCHMIDTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DAVID HEXOMUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Lyle J FischerUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blanchardville'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 Blanchardville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blanchardville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blanchardville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blanchardville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blanchardville — Underground Storage Tanks (51 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Blanchardville
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 Blanchardville average
Your land is one point inside Blanchardville
Everything above resolves to Blanchardville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 348 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 Blanchardville Average
Blanchardville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Blanchardville
- ●One soil character for all of Blanchardville
- ●Frost dates read at Blanchardville's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blanchardville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blanchardville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blanchardville, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blanchardville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blanchardville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blanchardville average
How we know this about Blanchardville
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 Blanchardville’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 Blanchardville
When does frost risk typically end in Blanchardville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchardville typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Blanchardville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchardville 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 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blanchardville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blanchardville sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 1, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blanchardville?
The federal record around Blanchardville shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), 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 Blanchardville?
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 Blanchardville's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blanchardville'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 Blanchardville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blanchardville's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 348 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blanchardville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blanchardville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 15 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blanchardville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blanchardville's boundary and the 348 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blanchardville's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blanchardville's 348 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blanchardville's 348 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blanchardville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 348 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 Blanchardville-wide figureread your own land →
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