Curtiss, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Curtiss, 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 Curtiss 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 Curtiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Curtiss — the short answer
Curtiss, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 439 acres of town.
- 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 439 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 Curtiss's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Curtiss's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Curtiss
Each reading below is measured for Curtiss itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCurtiss runs about 164 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
MeasuredCurtiss 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 Curtiss is in
Curtiss sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Curtiss's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Curtiss
Every plant below cleared Curtiss's own zone 4b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Curtiss?
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 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 9 — 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 Curtiss
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Curtiss. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOWEN HARDWARE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- THE OLDE SALOONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ERDMANS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Abbyland Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RODS CUSTOM PAINTINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- WALTER HEIMBACHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WITHEE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GALVIN TRACTOR CO INCBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- Clark County Health Care CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- CK-29/01E/08-0364Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- JAMES JONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- WI DOT BRIDGE B10-0023Brownfields · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Curtiss'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 Curtiss.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Curtiss
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Curtiss
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Curtiss, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Curtiss — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (138 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Curtiss
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 Curtiss average
Your land is one point inside Curtiss
Everything above resolves to Curtiss as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 439 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 town 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 Curtiss Average
Curtiss Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Curtiss
- ●One soil character for all of Curtiss
- ●Frost dates read at Curtiss's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Curtiss's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Curtiss
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Curtiss, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Curtiss averages can't show:
We read public map data around Curtiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Curtiss average
How we know this about Curtiss
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Curtiss’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Curtiss
When does frost risk typically end in Curtiss?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Curtiss 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 Curtiss?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Curtiss typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Curtiss?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Curtiss sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 25, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Curtiss?
The federal record around Curtiss is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (138), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Curtiss?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Curtiss's scale — its 4b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Curtiss'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 Curtiss’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Curtiss's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 439 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Curtiss's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Curtiss's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 9 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Curtiss, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Curtiss's boundary and the 439 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Curtiss'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 Curtiss's 439 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Curtiss's 439 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Curtiss you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 439 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Curtiss-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinCurtiss sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides