Chief Lake, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chief Lake, 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 Chief Lake 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 Chief Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chief Lake — the short answer
Chief Lake, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 4a is Chief Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chief Lake's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chief Lake
Each reading below is measured for Chief Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChief Lake runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChief Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Chief Lake is in
Chief Lake sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Chief Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sawyer County.
What Grows in Chief Lake
Every plant below cleared Chief Lake's own zone 4a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chief Lake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Chief Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chief Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANCHOR INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LCO QUICKSTOPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- L.C.O. SCHOOLSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Lco Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Trails End ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BROKEN ARROW LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- REEDER RECESS RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- GOETSCHS RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CHEIF LAKE LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Pats Landing ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GOLDEN VIEW RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- DAGGETT RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chief Lake'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 Chief Lake.
Total Sites
283
within ~10 miles of Chief Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chief Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chief Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chief Lake, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 200 sites within ~10 miles of Chief Lake. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Chief Lake
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 Chief Lake average
Your land is one point inside Chief Lake
Everything above resolves to Chief Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Chief Lake Average
Chief Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Chief Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Chief Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Chief Lake's scale: May 10 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chief Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chief Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chief Lake, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chief Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chief Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chief Lake average
How we know this about Chief Lake
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 Chief Lake’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 Chief Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Chief Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chief Lake typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Chief Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chief Lake typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chief Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chief Lake sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 20, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chief Lake?
The federal record around Chief Lake is a meaningful one — 283 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (200), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 gardeners stretch the season in Chief Lake?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Chief Lake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Chief Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chief Lake'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 Chief Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chief Lake's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,660 acres it covers and 283 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chief Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chief Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 4 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 283 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chief Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chief Lake's boundary and the 13,660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chief Lake's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chief Lake's 13,660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sawyer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sawyer 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 Sawyer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chief Lake's 13,660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chief Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Chief Lake-wide figureread your own land →