Dodgeville, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Dodgeville, 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 Dodgeville 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 Dodgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dodgeville — the short answer
Dodgeville, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- 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 5a is Dodgeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dodgeville's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dodgeville
Each reading below is measured for Dodgeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDodgeville runs about 184 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
MeasuredDodgeville 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 Dodgeville is in
Dodgeville sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dodgeville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iowa County.
What Grows in Dodgeville
Every plant below cleared Dodgeville's own zone 5a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dodgeville?
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 18 — 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 Dodgeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dodgeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pemberton RangeMining · 600 ft
- TERRYS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- IW-06/03E/27-0028Nitrate · 800 ft
- DODGEVILLE C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Caseys General Store #3727Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DODGEVILLE FOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RANDYS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MACK SEAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WILLIAMS BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Robert JanssenUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JACKS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ANCHOR BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dodgeville'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 Dodgeville.
Total Sites
545
within ~10 miles of Dodgeville
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dodgeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dodgeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dodgeville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 367 sites within ~10 miles of Dodgeville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Dodgeville
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 Dodgeville average
Your land is one point inside Dodgeville
Everything above resolves to Dodgeville 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 Dodgeville Average
Dodgeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dodgeville
- ●One soil character for all of Dodgeville
- ●Frost dates read at Dodgeville's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dodgeville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dodgeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dodgeville, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dodgeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dodgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dodgeville average
How we know this about Dodgeville
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 Dodgeville’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 Dodgeville
When does frost risk typically end in Dodgeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dodgeville 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 Dodgeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dodgeville typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dodgeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dodgeville sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dodgeville?
The federal record around Dodgeville runs heavier than most — 545 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (367), the nearest Mining 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 Dodgeville?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dodgeville's scale — its 5a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dodgeville'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 Dodgeville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dodgeville's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,598 acres it covers and 545 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dodgeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dodgeville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 545 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dodgeville, the closest Mining record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dodgeville's boundary and the 2,598 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dodgeville's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dodgeville's 2,598 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iowa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iowa 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 Iowa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dodgeville's 2,598 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dodgeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,598 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Dodgeville-wide figureread your own land →
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