Browntown, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Browntown, 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 Browntown 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 Browntown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Browntown — the short answer
Browntown, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 675 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
- 675 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 Browntown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Browntown's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Browntown
Each reading below is measured for Browntown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrowntown 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
MeasuredBrowntown 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 Browntown is in
Browntown sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Browntown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Green County is mostly Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Browntown
Every plant below cleared Browntown'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 Browntown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Browntown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Browntown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREEN COUNTY AG SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BROWNTOWN OIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- IROQUOIS FOUNDRY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MURRAY & SONS TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- BROWNTOWN WHEY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- THOMAS HURDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Iroquis Foundry - Citation Wisconsin Castings BrowntownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GREDE CASTINGS - BROWNTOWN DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- GREDE CASTINGS - BROWNTOWN DIVISIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- GN-01/06E/04-0014Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- GN-01/06E/07-0016Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- Town Of CadezUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Browntown'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 Browntown.
Total Sites
260
within ~10 miles of Browntown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Browntown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Browntown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Browntown, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Browntown. 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 Browntown
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 Browntown average
Your land is one point inside Browntown
Everything above resolves to Browntown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 675 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 Browntown Average
Browntown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Browntown
- ●One soil character for all of Browntown
- ●Frost dates read at Browntown's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Browntown's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Browntown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Browntown, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Browntown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Browntown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Browntown average
How we know this about Browntown
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 Browntown’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 Browntown
When does frost risk typically end in Browntown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Browntown 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 Browntown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Browntown 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 Browntown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Browntown 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 Browntown?
The federal record around Browntown is a meaningful one — 260 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Browntown?
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 Browntown's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Browntown'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 Browntown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Browntown's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 675 acres it covers and 260 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Browntown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Browntown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 17 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 260 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Browntown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Browntown's boundary and the 675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Browntown 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 Browntown's 675 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 Browntown's 675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Browntown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 675 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 Browntown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Nearby growing guides