Diaperville, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Diaperville, 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 Diaperville 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 Diaperville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Diaperville — the short answer
Diaperville, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 283 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 283 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 Diaperville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Diaperville's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Diaperville
Each reading below is measured for Diaperville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDiaperville runs about 171 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
MeasuredDiaperville 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 Diaperville is in
Diaperville sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Diaperville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ashland County.
What Grows in Diaperville
Every plant below cleared Diaperville's own zone 5a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Diaperville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Diaperville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Diaperville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AS-48/03W/26-0263Nitrate · 700 ft
- AS-48/03W/26-0264Nitrate · 1800 ft
- POW WOW GROUNDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AS-48/03W/26-0261Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- COUNTY A ROAD SLUDGE DISPOSALSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- TALL TIMBER SALESBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AS-48/03W/27-0259Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- AS-48/03W/25-0267Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- AS-48/03W/23-0037 U.S.I.S.Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AS-48/03W/23-0219Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AS-48/03W/23-0218Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AS-48/03W/36-0280Nitrate · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Diaperville'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 Diaperville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Diaperville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Diaperville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Diaperville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Diaperville — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Diaperville
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 Diaperville average
Your land is one point inside Diaperville
Everything above resolves to Diaperville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 283 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 Diaperville Average
Diaperville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Diaperville
- ●One soil character for all of Diaperville
- ●Frost dates read at Diaperville's scale: May 6 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Diaperville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Diaperville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Diaperville, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Diaperville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Diaperville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Diaperville average
How we know this about Diaperville
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 Diaperville’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 Diaperville
When does frost risk typically end in Diaperville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Diaperville typically lands around May 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 May 27.
When is the first frost in Diaperville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Diaperville typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Diaperville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Diaperville sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Oct 10, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Diaperville?
The federal record around Diaperville is a meaningful one — 268 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Nitrate 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 Diaperville?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Diaperville's scale — its 5a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Diaperville'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 Diaperville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Diaperville's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 283 acres it covers and 268 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Diaperville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Diaperville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 24 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 268 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Diaperville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Diaperville's boundary and the 283 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Diaperville's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Diaperville's 283 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashland 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 Ashland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Diaperville's 283 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Diaperville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 283 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Diaperville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinDiaperville sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides