Cedarburg, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Cedarburg, 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 Cedarburg 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 Cedarburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedarburg — the short answer
Cedarburg, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 5b is Cedarburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedarburg's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedarburg
Each reading below is measured for Cedarburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCedarburg runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCedarburg sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Cedarburg is in
Cedarburg sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cedarburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ozaukee County.
What Grows in Cedarburg
Every plant below cleared Cedarburg's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedarburg?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Cedarburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedarburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAR MAID AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- AJC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- COVERED BRIDGE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Harley Bransow SrUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- EVELYN M ROSENTHALUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Five Corners Gmc IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- TRI PAR OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Hermans ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Cedarburg Community Center GymUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CEDARBURG FIRE DEPT #2Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- OZ-10/21E/27-0016Nitrate · 850 ft
- CITY OF CEDARBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedarburg'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 Cedarburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedarburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedarburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedarburg, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 148 sites within ~10 miles of Cedarburg. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cedarburg
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 Cedarburg average
Your land is one point inside Cedarburg
Everything above resolves to Cedarburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Cedarburg Average
Cedarburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cedarburg
- ●One soil character for all of Cedarburg
- ●Frost dates read at Cedarburg's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedarburg's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedarburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedarburg, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedarburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedarburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedarburg average
How we know this about Cedarburg
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 Cedarburg’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 Cedarburg
When does frost risk typically end in Cedarburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedarburg typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Cedarburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedarburg typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedarburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedarburg sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 16, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedarburg?
The federal record around Cedarburg runs heavier than most — 1,467 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (597), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedarburg?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedarburg's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedarburg'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 Cedarburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cedarburg's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,149 acres it covers and 1,467 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedarburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedarburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 30 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,467 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedarburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedarburg's boundary and the 3,149 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cedarburg'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 Cedarburg's 3,149 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ozaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ozaukee 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 Ozaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedarburg's 3,149 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedarburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,149 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 Cedarburg-wide figureread your own land →