Door County, in Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Door County lies within Door County — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Door County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Door 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 Door County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Door County — the short answer
Door County, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 308K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 308K 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 5b is Door County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Door County's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Door County
Across a year, Door County accumulates about 1,835 growing degree days above 50°F, about 315 fewer than the middle Wisconsin county — ahead of 13 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 Door County
Across Door County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Summerville, Longrie, and Omena are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Door County
The USDA soil survey maps 66% of Door County as well drained — but another 31% drains differently: 13% somewhat poorly drained, 9% very poorly drained.
Summerville is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Longrie (12%) and Omena (9%).
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 Door County
Each reading below is measured for Door 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 Door County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Door County runs about pH 6.5–7.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 16% of Door 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
MeasuredDoor County runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
The kind of country Door County is in
Door County sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Door County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Door County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 201-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 Door County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Door County
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly19 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Door County
USGS estimates 36,621 lb of Glyphosate on Door County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (25,228 lb) and Metolachlor-s (20,820 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 Door County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Door County — 477 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). 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 Door 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 Door County
Closest first, across Door County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Baileys Harbor Yacht ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PARENT CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- DR-30/28E/08-0151Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- SILVER GULLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Baileys Harbor Town MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WASHICHEK STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- NELSON SHOPPING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- NEWPORT STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- KOSER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- KIEHNAUS SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- Kiehnaus Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- DR-30/28E/20-0028Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Door 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 Door County.
Total Sites
477
across Door County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Door County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Door County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 320 sites across Door County. 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 Door 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 Door County average
Your land is one point inside Door County
Everything above resolves to Door County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 308K 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 Door County Average
Door County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Door County
- ●One soil character for all of Door County
- ●Frost dates read at Door County's scale: Apr 22 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Door County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Door County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Door County, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Door County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Door County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Door County average
How we know this about Door 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 Door County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Door County
When does frost risk typically end in Door County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Door County typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Door County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Door County sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 26, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Door County?
The federal record around Door County is a meaningful one — 477 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (320), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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 Door County's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Door 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 Door County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Door County's own scale — its own ~201-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 477 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Door County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Door County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Door CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 477 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Door County's boundary and the 308,439 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Door County sitting wholly inside the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Door County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Door 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 Door County — the ~201 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 Door County's 308,439 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 477 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 Door Countyread your own land →