Bonduel, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bonduel, 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 Bonduel 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 Bonduel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bonduel — the short answer
Bonduel, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Bonduel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bonduel's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bonduel
Each reading below is measured for Bonduel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBonduel runs about 165 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
MeasuredBonduel 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 Bonduel is in
Bonduel sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bonduel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shawano County.
What Grows in Bonduel
Every plant below cleared Bonduel's own zone 5a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bonduel?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Bonduel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bonduel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELLIN HEALTH FAMILY MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 250 ft
- VILLAGE OF BONDUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DELS MOBIL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BONDUEL OIL CO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STUEWER SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BENTERS ELEVATOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GOLDEN GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SPORT SHOP AND REPAIRBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Leez Gas & Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- OLD PICKLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ERNEST TISCHLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- School District Of BonduelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bonduel'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 Bonduel.
Total Sites
329
within ~10 miles of Bonduel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bonduel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bonduel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bonduel, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bonduel — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (237 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Bonduel
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 Bonduel average
Your land is one point inside Bonduel
Everything above resolves to Bonduel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bonduel Average
Bonduel Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bonduel
- ●One soil character for all of Bonduel
- ●Frost dates read at Bonduel's scale: May 1 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bonduel's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bonduel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bonduel, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bonduel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bonduel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bonduel average
How we know this about Bonduel
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 Bonduel’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 Bonduel
When does frost risk typically end in Bonduel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bonduel typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Bonduel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bonduel typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bonduel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bonduel sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 29, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bonduel?
The federal record around Bonduel is a meaningful one — 329 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (237), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bonduel?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bonduel's scale — its 5a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bonduel'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 Bonduel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bonduel's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,448 acres it covers and 329 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bonduel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bonduel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 13 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 329 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bonduel, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bonduel's boundary and the 1,448 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bonduel'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 Bonduel's 1,448 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shawano County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shawano 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 Shawano County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bonduel's 1,448 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bonduel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,448 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bonduel-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBonduel sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.