Cuba City, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Cuba City, 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 Cuba City 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 Cuba City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cuba City — the short answer
Cuba City, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 742 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 742 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 Cuba City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cuba City's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cuba City
Each reading below is measured for Cuba City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCuba City runs about 190 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
MeasuredCuba City 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 Cuba City is in
Cuba City sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cuba City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Cuba City
Every plant below cleared Cuba City's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cuba City?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Cuba City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cuba City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MUNYONS PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Munyon's Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GENTHE BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- B & B OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- KWIK TRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Kwik Trip #339Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CUBA CITY MACHINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Cuba City State BankUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JOSEPH LYSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GR-02/01W/36-0034Nitrate · 1200 ft
- CUBA CITY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CUBA CITY STATION (FORMER)Brownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cuba City'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 Cuba City.
Total Sites
724
within ~10 miles of Cuba City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cuba City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cuba City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cuba City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cuba City — Mining (472 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Cuba City
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 Cuba City average
Your land is one point inside Cuba City
Everything above resolves to Cuba City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 742 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 Cuba City Average
Cuba City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cuba City
- ●One soil character for all of Cuba City
- ●Frost dates read at Cuba City's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cuba City's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cuba City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cuba City, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cuba City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cuba City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cuba City average
How we know this about Cuba City
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 Cuba City’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 Cuba City
When does frost risk typically end in Cuba City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cuba City typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Cuba City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cuba City typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cuba City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cuba City sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cuba City?
The federal record around Cuba City runs heavier than most — 724 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (472), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cuba City?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cuba City's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cuba City'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 Cuba City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cuba City's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 742 acres it covers and 724 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cuba City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cuba City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 724 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cuba City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cuba City's boundary and the 742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cuba City's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cuba City's 742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cuba City's 742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cuba City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 742 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 Cuba City-wide figureread your own land →
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