Clintonville, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Clintonville, 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 Clintonville 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 Clintonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clintonville — the short answer
Clintonville, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- 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 5a is Clintonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clintonville's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clintonville
Each reading below is measured for Clintonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClintonville runs about 173 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
MeasuredClintonville 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 Clintonville is in
Clintonville sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clintonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waupaca County.
What Grows in Clintonville
Every plant below cleared Clintonville's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clintonville?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Clintonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clintonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOUR WHEEL DRIVE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SEAGRAVE FIRE APPARATUS LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- SEAGRAVE FIRE APPARATUS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WP-25/14E/24-0050Nitrate · 1100 ft
- BROADWIND HEAVY INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- Clintonville Municipal AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CLINTONVILLE ARMORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- V P & J CONST INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- J D STEINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- KUEHL ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ROBERT SIPIORSKIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clintonville'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 Clintonville.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Clintonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clintonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clintonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clintonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clintonville — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (157 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Clintonville
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 Clintonville average
Your land is one point inside Clintonville
Everything above resolves to Clintonville 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 Clintonville Average
Clintonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Clintonville
- ●One soil character for all of Clintonville
- ●Frost dates read at Clintonville's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clintonville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clintonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clintonville, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clintonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clintonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clintonville average
How we know this about Clintonville
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 Clintonville’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 Clintonville
When does frost risk typically end in Clintonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clintonville typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Clintonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clintonville typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clintonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clintonville sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 3, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clintonville?
The federal record around Clintonville is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Clintonville?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clintonville's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clintonville'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 Clintonville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clintonville's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,842 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clintonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clintonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 17 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clintonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clintonville's boundary and the 2,842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clintonville'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 Clintonville's 2,842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waupaca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waupaca 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 Waupaca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clintonville's 2,842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clintonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Clintonville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinClintonville sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides