Cecil, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Cecil, 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 Cecil 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 Cecil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cecil — the short answer
Cecil, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- 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 Cecil's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cecil's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cecil
Each reading below is measured for Cecil itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCecil runs about 167 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
MeasuredCecil 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 Cecil is in
Cecil sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cecil's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shawano County.
What Grows in Cecil
Every plant below cleared Cecil's own zone 5a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cecil?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Cecil
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cecil. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lakeside CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CECIL MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- LAKESHORE TEL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- WESTERFELD OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DAVES SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DAVID DOLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KROLLS STANDARD AVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GEORGE WAGNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KENNETH A COURCHAINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CECIL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Lakeview Convenience IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WEST SIDE LAKE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cecil'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 Cecil.
Total Sites
414
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cecil
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cecil, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cecil — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (268 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 Cecil
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 Cecil average
Your land is one point inside Cecil
Everything above resolves to Cecil 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 Cecil Average
Cecil Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cecil
- ●One soil character for all of Cecil
- ●Frost dates read at Cecil's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cecil's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cecil
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cecil, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cecil averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cecil — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cecil average
How we know this about Cecil
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 Cecil’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 Cecil
When does frost risk typically end in Cecil?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cecil typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Cecil?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cecil typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cecil?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cecil sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 30, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cecil?
The federal record around Cecil is a meaningful one — 414 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (268), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cecil?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cecil's scale — its 5a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cecil'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 Cecil’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cecil's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,146 acres it covers and 414 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cecil's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cecil's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 14 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 414 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cecil, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cecil's boundary and the 1,146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cecil'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 Cecil's 1,146 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 Cecil's 1,146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cecil you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,146 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cecil-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinCecil sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides