Dousman, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Dousman, 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 Dousman 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 Dousman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dousman — the short answer
Dousman, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Dousman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dousman's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dousman
Each reading below is measured for Dousman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDousman runs about 188 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
MeasuredDousman sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Dousman is in
Dousman sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dousman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waukesha County.
What Grows in Dousman
Every plant below cleared Dousman's own zone 5b and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dousman?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Dousman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dousman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARM BETTER SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DOUSMAN TRANSPORT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FINN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FREDS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STURDI CRAFT INDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WK-06/17E/03-0862Nitrate · 1500 ft
- JAMES MUELLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Lafarge / Tews CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SORENSEN CUSTOM SERVICESBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ACE HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KETTLE MORAINE MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Wolf Construction Co-Shop SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dousman'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 Dousman.
Total Sites
669
within ~10 miles of Dousman
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dousman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dousman
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 Dousman
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 Dousman average
Your land is one point inside Dousman
Everything above resolves to Dousman as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dousman Average
Dousman Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Dousman
- ●One soil character for all of Dousman
- ●Frost dates read at Dousman's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dousman's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dousman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dousman, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dousman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dousman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dousman average
How we know this about Dousman
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 Dousman’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 Dousman
When does frost risk typically end in Dousman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dousman typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Dousman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dousman typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dousman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dousman sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 7, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dousman?
The federal record around Dousman is a meaningful one — 669 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (326), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dousman?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dousman's scale — its 5b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dousman'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 Dousman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dousman's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,907 acres it covers and 669 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dousman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dousman's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 21 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 669 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dousman, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dousman's boundary and the 1,907 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dousman's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dousman's 1,907 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waukesha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waukesha 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 Waukesha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dousman's 1,907 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dousman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,907 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dousman-wide figureread your own land →