Brodhead, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brodhead, 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 Brodhead 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 Brodhead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brodhead — the short answer
Brodhead, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Brodhead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brodhead's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brodhead
Each reading below is measured for Brodhead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrodhead runs about 186 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
MeasuredBrodhead 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 Brodhead is in
Brodhead sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brodhead's own centroid rather than borrowed from Green County.
What Grows in Brodhead
Every plant below cleared Brodhead's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brodhead?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Brodhead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brodhead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETERSONS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LUND FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Davey LeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BRODHEAD TIRE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DECATUR DAIRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Sunshine Self ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Olin Oil BrodheadUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WEEDEN AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GREEN ROCK FS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- INDEPENDENT REGISTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AYRES CHEV PONTIAC BUICK INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- AYRES CHEVROLET PONTIAC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brodhead'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 Brodhead.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Brodhead
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brodhead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brodhead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brodhead, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Brodhead. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Brodhead
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 Brodhead average
Your land is one point inside Brodhead
Everything above resolves to Brodhead 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 city 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 Brodhead Average
Brodhead Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Brodhead
- ●One soil character for all of Brodhead
- ●Frost dates read at Brodhead's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brodhead's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brodhead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brodhead, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brodhead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brodhead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brodhead average
How we know this about Brodhead
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Brodhead’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Brodhead
When does frost risk typically end in Brodhead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brodhead typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Brodhead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brodhead typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brodhead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brodhead sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 4, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brodhead?
The federal record around Brodhead shows 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brodhead?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brodhead's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brodhead'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 Brodhead’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brodhead's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,149 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brodhead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brodhead's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 18 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brodhead, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brodhead's boundary and the 1,149 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brodhead's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brodhead's 1,149 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Green County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Green 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 Green County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brodhead's 1,149 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brodhead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,149 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brodhead-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBrodhead sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides