Cudahy, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cudahy, 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 Cudahy 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 Cudahy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cudahy — the short answer
Cudahy, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6a is Cudahy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cudahy's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cudahy
Each reading below is measured for Cudahy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCudahy runs about 218 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCudahy sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Cudahy is in
Cudahy sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cudahy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in Cudahy
Every plant below cleared Cudahy's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cudahy?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Cudahy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cudahy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATI LADISH LLCBrownfields · 700 ft
- ATI LADISH LLCToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- CUDAHY AUTO CARE INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LUCAS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Ladish Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ASTRO TOOL & DIE CORPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Mister Carwash & Express Lube # 496Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FRANK TOMKAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CUDAHY AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CUSTOMS UNLIMITED AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- United Welding & Mfg Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MIDAS MUFFLERBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cudahy'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 Cudahy.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cudahy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cudahy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cudahy, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 237 sites within ~10 miles of Cudahy. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cudahy
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 Cudahy average
Your land is one point inside Cudahy
Everything above resolves to Cudahy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Cudahy Average
Cudahy Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cudahy
- ●One soil character for all of Cudahy
- ●Frost dates read at Cudahy's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cudahy's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cudahy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cudahy, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cudahy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cudahy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cudahy average
How we know this about Cudahy
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 Cudahy’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 Cudahy
When does frost risk typically end in Cudahy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cudahy typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Cudahy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cudahy typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cudahy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cudahy sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 27, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cudahy?
The federal record around Cudahy is a meaningful one — 3,669 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,881), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cudahy?
From about Oct 11 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 Nov 10 (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 Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cudahy's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cudahy'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 Cudahy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cudahy's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,055 acres it covers and 3,669 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cudahy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cudahy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 10 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,669 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cudahy, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cudahy's boundary and the 3,055 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cudahy's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cudahy's 3,055 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Milwaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cudahy's 3,055 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cudahy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,055 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Cudahy-wide figureread your own land →