Ashland County, in Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ashland County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ashland County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Ashland County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ashland County — the short answer
Ashland County, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 669K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 669K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Ashland County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashland County's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ashland County
Across a year, Ashland County accumulates about 1,624 growing degree days above 50°F, about 526 fewer than the middle Wisconsin county — ahead of 6 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Ashland County
Across Ashland County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Gogebic, Shanagolden, and Sanborg are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.2–5.9, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
27%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ashland County
The USDA soil survey maps 51% of Ashland County as moderately well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 17% very poorly drained, 9% poorly drained.
Gogebic is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Shanagolden (9%) and Sanborg (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Ashland County
Each reading below is measured for Ashland County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Ashland County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Ashland County runs about pH 5.2–5.9, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 27% of Ashland County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAshland County runs about 161 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
The kind of country Ashland County is in
Ashland County sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Ashland County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ashland County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 161-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ashland County?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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.
Documented around Ashland County
- monarch butterfly131 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ashland County
USGS estimates 3,078 lb of Glyphosate on Ashland County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (2,049 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,968 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Ashland County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ashland County — 384 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Ashland County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Ashland County
Closest first, across Ashland County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GOVERNMENT ROAD SLUDGE DISPOSALSuperfund · 2.2 mi
- AS-47/03W/22-0346Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- AS-47/03W/02-0038 U.S.I.S.Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- AS-48/03W/36-0280Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- AS-48/02W/31-0278Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- PAMIDA INCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Bad River Tribe Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- COUNTY A ROAD SLUDGE DISPOSALSuperfund · 3.9 mi
- AS-48/03W/25-0269Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- AS-48/03W/34-0245Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- AS-48/03W/25-0268Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- AS-48/02W/32-0069Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashland County'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 Ashland County.
Sources Checked
across Ashland County
Severity Distribution
across Ashland County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ashland County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 110 sites across Ashland County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ashland County
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 Ashland County average
Your land is one point inside Ashland County
Everything above resolves to Ashland County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 669K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Ashland County Average
Ashland County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Ashland County
- ●One soil character for all of Ashland County
- ●Frost dates read at Ashland County's scale: May 7 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashland County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ashland County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashland County, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashland County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashland County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashland County average
How we know this about Ashland County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Ashland County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ashland County
When does frost risk typically end in Ashland County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashland County typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Ashland County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashland County sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Oct 1, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ashland County?
The federal record around Ashland County is a meaningful one — 384 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (172), the nearest Superfund record about 2.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Ashland County's scale — its 5a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashland County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Wisconsin's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Ashland County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ashland County's own scale — its own ~161-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 384 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashland County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashland County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ashland CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 384 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Superfund record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ashland County's boundary and the 668,780 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ashland County sitting wholly inside the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ashland County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ashland County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Ashland County — the ~161 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashland County's 668,780 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 384 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Ashland Countyread your own land →