Darlington, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Even in Darlington, 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 Darlington 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 Darlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Darlington — the short answer
Darlington, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Darlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Darlington's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Darlington
Each reading below is measured for Darlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDarlington runs about 182 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
MeasuredDarlington 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 Darlington is in
Darlington sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Darlington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette County.
What Grows in Darlington
Every plant below cleared Darlington's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Darlington?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Darlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Darlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRANDALLS SELF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CULLEN SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ENGSTAD CHEVROLET BUICK OLDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- KENS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- ALS TRUCKING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Caseys General Store #2503Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Reichling Brothers GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LF-02/03E/03-0016Nitrate · 1100 ft
- DARLINGTON MACHINE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lafayette County Co OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BARBER COLMAN MOTOR DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Virtues Auto TechUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Darlington'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 Darlington.
Total Sites
197
within ~10 miles of Darlington
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Darlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Darlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Darlington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Darlington — Mining (55 sites) and CAFO (6 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 Darlington
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 Darlington average
Your land is one point inside Darlington
Everything above resolves to Darlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Darlington Average
Darlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Darlington
- ●One soil character for all of Darlington
- ●Frost dates read at Darlington's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Darlington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Darlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Darlington, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Darlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Darlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Darlington average
How we know this about Darlington
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 Darlington’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 Darlington
When does frost risk typically end in Darlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Darlington typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Darlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Darlington typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Darlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Darlington sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 2, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Darlington?
The federal record around Darlington runs heavier than most — 197 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Darlington?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Darlington's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Darlington'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 Darlington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Darlington's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,085 acres it covers and 197 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Darlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Darlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 16 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 197 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Darlington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Darlington's boundary and the 1,085 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Darlington's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Darlington's 1,085 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Darlington's 1,085 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Darlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,085 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Darlington-wide figureread your own land →
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