Cashton, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cashton, 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 Cashton 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 Cashton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cashton — the short answer
Cashton, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 816 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 816 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 Cashton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cashton's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cashton
Each reading below is measured for Cashton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCashton runs about 191 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
MeasuredCashton 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 Cashton is in
Cashton sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cashton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Cashton
Every plant below cleared Cashton's own zone 5a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cashton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Cashton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cashton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCENIC BLUFFS HEALTH CENTER INC.Brownfields · 300 ft
- HEARTLAND COUNTRY CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Ray's Gas And GoodiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- WDOT - Former Mobil Bulk Plant - Wis DOT ID 500-08-72Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #19383Brownfields · 650 ft
- MO-15/03W/30-0081Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Central Express IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- School District Of CashtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Hoffman MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BYRNS EQUIP & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DANCELANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Dell StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cashton'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 Cashton.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Cashton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cashton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cashton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cashton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Cashton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Cashton
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 Cashton average
Your land is one point inside Cashton
Everything above resolves to Cashton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 816 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 Cashton Average
Cashton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cashton
- ●One soil character for all of Cashton
- ●Frost dates read at Cashton's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cashton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cashton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cashton, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cashton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cashton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cashton average
How we know this about Cashton
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 Cashton’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 Cashton
When does frost risk typically end in Cashton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cashton typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Cashton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cashton typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cashton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cashton sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 10, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cashton?
The federal record around Cashton shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cashton?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cashton's scale — its 5a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cashton'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 Cashton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cashton's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 816 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cashton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cashton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 24 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cashton, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cashton's boundary and the 816 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cashton's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cashton's 816 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cashton's 816 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cashton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 816 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 Cashton-wide figureread your own land →
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