Blue River, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Blue River, 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 River 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 River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue River — the short answer
Blue River, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 583 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 583 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 Blue River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue River's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue River
Each reading below is measured for Blue River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue River 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
MeasuredBlue River 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 Blue River is in
Blue River sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blue River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Blue River
Every plant below cleared Blue River'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 Blue River?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Blue River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- New Horizons Supply CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- NEW HORIZONS SUPPLY CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GR-08/02W/11-0039Nitrate · 850 ft
- WDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- RIVERDALE MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- RICHLAND GRANT TELEPHONE COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TOWN OF RICHWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Hilda EatonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Bessie SchellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Stanley HansonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TOWNSHIP OF AKANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BEFLYN RECOBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue River'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 River.
Total Sites
179
within ~10 miles of Blue River
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue River, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 127 sites within ~10 miles of Blue River. 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 Blue River
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 River average
Your land is one point inside Blue River
Everything above resolves to Blue River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 583 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 River Average
Blue River Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Blue River
- ●One soil character for all of Blue River
- ●Frost dates read at Blue River's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue River's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue River, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue River average
How we know this about Blue River
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 River’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 River
When does frost risk typically end in Blue River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue River typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Blue River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue River typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue River sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 3, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue River?
The federal record around Blue River shows 179 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), 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 Blue River?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue River's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue River'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 River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blue River's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 583 acres it covers and 179 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 17 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 179 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue River's boundary and the 583 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 Blue River's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue River's 583 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue River's 583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 583 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 Blue River-wide figureread your own land →
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