Cazenovia, 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 Cazenovia, 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 Cazenovia 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 Cazenovia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cazenovia — the short answer
Cazenovia, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 586 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 586 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 Cazenovia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cazenovia's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cazenovia
Each reading below is measured for Cazenovia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCazenovia runs about 176 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
MeasuredCazenovia 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 Cazenovia is in
Cazenovia sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cazenovia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richland County.
What Grows in Cazenovia
Every plant below cleared Cazenovia's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cazenovia?
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 Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Cazenovia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cazenovia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ma & Pas Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TOWN OF WILLOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TEMPLEN AGRI BUILDERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GAROLD LUXTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COUNTRYSIDE FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ALIBI'S BAR & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CLAIRE LUXTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Weston High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- LAVALLE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- LA VALLE FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LIMERIDGE AGRI SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CECIL & GLORIA SCOTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cazenovia'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 Cazenovia.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Cazenovia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cazenovia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cazenovia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cazenovia, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Cazenovia. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cazenovia
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 Cazenovia average
Your land is one point inside Cazenovia
Everything above resolves to Cazenovia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 586 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 Cazenovia Average
Cazenovia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cazenovia
- ●One soil character for all of Cazenovia
- ●Frost dates read at Cazenovia's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cazenovia's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cazenovia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cazenovia, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cazenovia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cazenovia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cazenovia average
How we know this about Cazenovia
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 Cazenovia’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 Cazenovia
When does frost risk typically end in Cazenovia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cazenovia typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cazenovia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cazenovia typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cazenovia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cazenovia sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 1, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cazenovia?
The federal record around Cazenovia shows 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cazenovia?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cazenovia's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cazenovia'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 Cazenovia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cazenovia's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 586 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cazenovia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cazenovia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 15 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cazenovia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cazenovia's boundary and the 586 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cazenovia's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cazenovia's 586 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richland 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 Richland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cazenovia's 586 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cazenovia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 586 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cazenovia-wide figureread your own land →
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