Coon Valley, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, 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 Coon Valley, 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 Coon Valley 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 Coon Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coon Valley — the short answer
Coon Valley, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 713 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 713 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 Coon Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coon Valley's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coon Valley
Each reading below is measured for Coon Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoon Valley runs about 191 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
MeasuredCoon Valley 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 Coon Valley is in
Coon Valley sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coon Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vernon County.
What Grows in Coon Valley
Every plant below cleared Coon Valley's own zone 5a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coon Valley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Coon Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coon Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Clarence MorienUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- DANIEL HESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- COON VALLEY AMERICAN LEGIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- SCHOOL DISTRICT OF WESTBYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- COON VALLEY MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BOB JOHNSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- LOUIS A DI SCIASCIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- GREAT RIVERS FS CO OP FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- VE-14/05W/07-0076Nitrate · 900 ft
- ERICKSON AUTO SPECIALISTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kwik Trip #846Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- COON VALLEY ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coon Valley'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 Coon Valley.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Coon Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coon Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coon Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coon Valley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Coon Valley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Coon Valley
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 Coon Valley average
Your land is one point inside Coon Valley
Everything above resolves to Coon Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 713 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 Coon Valley Average
Coon Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Coon Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Coon Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Coon Valley's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coon Valley's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coon Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coon Valley, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coon Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coon Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coon Valley average
How we know this about Coon Valley
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 Coon Valley’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 Coon Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Coon Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coon Valley typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Coon Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coon Valley typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coon Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coon Valley sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 9, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coon Valley?
The federal record around Coon Valley shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Coon Valley?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coon Valley's scale — its 5a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coon Valley'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 Coon Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coon Valley's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 713 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coon Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coon Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 23 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coon Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coon Valley's boundary and the 713 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coon Valley's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coon Valley's 713 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vernon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vernon 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 Vernon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coon Valley's 713 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coon Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 713 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 Coon Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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