Cornucopia, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cornucopia, 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 Cornucopia 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 Cornucopia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cornucopia — the short answer
Cornucopia, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 179 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- 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 Cornucopia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cornucopia's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cornucopia
Each reading below is measured for Cornucopia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCornucopia runs about 179 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
MeasuredCornucopia 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 Cornucopia is in
Cornucopia sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Cornucopia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bayfield County.
What Grows in Cornucopia
Every plant below cleared Cornucopia's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cornucopia?
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 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 26 — 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 Cornucopia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cornucopia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Star North Of Cornucopia LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LAKELAND GAS & AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- LAKELAND GAS & AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Siskiwit Bay Marina IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BAYFIELD CNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KATHY BECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FANTA (VETTER ESTATE)Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TOWN OF BELL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BELL TN GARAGEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BA-50/06W/04-0169Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- BA-50/06W/21-0014Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- NORTHLAND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cornucopia'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 Cornucopia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cornucopia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cornucopia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Cornucopia
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 Cornucopia average
Your land is one point inside Cornucopia
Everything above resolves to Cornucopia 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 Cornucopia Average
Cornucopia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cornucopia
- ●One soil character for all of Cornucopia
- ●Frost dates read at Cornucopia's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cornucopia's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cornucopia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cornucopia, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cornucopia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cornucopia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cornucopia average
How we know this about Cornucopia
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 Cornucopia’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 Cornucopia
When does frost risk typically end in Cornucopia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cornucopia 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 Cornucopia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cornucopia typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cornucopia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cornucopia sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 12, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cornucopia?
The federal record around Cornucopia is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cornucopia?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cornucopia's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cornucopia'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 Cornucopia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cornucopia's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,449 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cornucopia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cornucopia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 26 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cornucopia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cornucopia's boundary and the 1,449 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cornucopia'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 Cornucopia's 1,449 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bayfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bayfield 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 Bayfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cornucopia's 1,449 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cornucopia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,449 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cornucopia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Growing region