Cumberland, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cumberland, 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 Cumberland 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 Cumberland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cumberland — the short answer
Cumberland, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- 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 4b is Cumberland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cumberland's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cumberland
Each reading below is measured for Cumberland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCumberland runs about 170 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
MeasuredCumberland sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Cumberland is in
Cumberland sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cumberland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barron County.
What Grows in Cumberland
Every plant below cleared Cumberland's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cumberland?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Cumberland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cumberland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE C STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CIRCLE C RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HILTON JOHNSON ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HAROLD JOHNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CUMBERLAND FEDERAL S & LUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Centurytel - BarronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BAND BOX CLEANERS & LAUNDRYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BR-35/13W/06-0001Nitrate · 1200 ft
- UNIVERSAL FOODS CORP STELLA CHEESE DIVBrownfields · 1300 ft
- UNIVERSAL FOODS CORP STELLA CHEESE DIVToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- Cumberland Municipal UtilitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BR-35/13W/07-0002Nitrate · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cumberland'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 Cumberland.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Cumberland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cumberland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cumberland
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 Cumberland
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 Cumberland average
Your land is one point inside Cumberland
Everything above resolves to Cumberland 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 Cumberland Average
Cumberland Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cumberland
- ●One soil character for all of Cumberland
- ●Frost dates read at Cumberland's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cumberland's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cumberland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cumberland, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cumberland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cumberland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cumberland average
How we know this about Cumberland
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 Cumberland’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 Cumberland
When does frost risk typically end in Cumberland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cumberland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cumberland typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cumberland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cumberland sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cumberland?
The federal record around Cumberland shows 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cumberland?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cumberland's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cumberland'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 Cumberland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cumberland's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,660 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cumberland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cumberland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 15 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cumberland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cumberland's boundary and the 2,660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cumberland's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cumberland's 2,660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barron 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 Barron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cumberland's 2,660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cumberland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Cumberland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinCumberland sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides