Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Blue Mounds, 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 Blue Mounds 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 Blue Mounds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue Mounds — the short answer
Blue Mounds, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 564 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 564 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 Blue Mounds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Mounds's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Mounds
Each reading below is measured for Blue Mounds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Mounds 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
MeasuredBlue Mounds 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 Blue Mounds is in
Blue Mounds sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blue Mounds's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dane County is mostly Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Blue Mounds
Every plant below cleared Blue Mounds'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 Blue Mounds?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Blue Mounds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Mounds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DN-06/06E/07-0487Nitrate · 1300 ft
- EDWARD ADAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VELM STEBNITZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BLUE MOUNDS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WI DNR BLUE MOUND STATE PARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DN-06/06E/05-0117Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BLUE MOUNDS RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Blue Mounds State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Brighams MineMining · 1.0 mi
- WI DOT RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- DN-06/06E/04-0485Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- BARNEVELD IMPLEMENTBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Mounds'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 Blue Mounds.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Blue Mounds
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Mounds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Mounds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Mounds, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Blue Mounds. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Blue Mounds
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 Blue Mounds average
Your land is one point inside Blue Mounds
Everything above resolves to Blue Mounds as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 564 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 Blue Mounds Average
Blue Mounds Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Blue Mounds
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Mounds
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Mounds's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Mounds's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Mounds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Mounds, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Mounds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Mounds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Mounds average
How we know this about Blue Mounds
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 Blue Mounds’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 Blue Mounds
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Mounds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Mounds typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Blue Mounds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Mounds typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Mounds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Mounds sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 6, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Mounds?
The federal record around Blue Mounds is a meaningful one — 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Nitrate 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 Blue Mounds?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue Mounds's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Mounds'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 Blue Mounds’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue Mounds's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 564 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Mounds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Mounds's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 20 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Mounds, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Mounds's boundary and the 564 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Blue Mounds sits in the Driftless Area — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue Mounds's 564 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dane 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 Dane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Mounds's 564 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Mounds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 564 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Blue Mounds-wide figureread your own land →
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