Dunbar, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Dunbar, 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 Dunbar 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 Dunbar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dunbar — the short answer
Dunbar, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 681 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 681 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 Dunbar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunbar's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunbar
Each reading below is measured for Dunbar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunbar runs about 151 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
MeasuredDunbar 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 Dunbar is in
Dunbar sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Dunbar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marinette County.
What Grows in Dunbar
Every plant below cleared Dunbar's own zone 4b and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunbar?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Dunbar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunbar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PORTSIDE GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TOWN OF DUNBAR GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FORMER SINCLAIR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LEONARD R NEVERMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- US ARMY CORP OF ENGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DUNBAR SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C & E ENTERPRISES OF WISCONSIN INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WILLIAM NEUBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Bear NecessitiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MT-37/19E/29-0188Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- COLEMAN LAKE CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DuvalMining · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunbar'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 Dunbar.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Dunbar
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunbar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunbar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunbar, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Dunbar. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dunbar
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 Dunbar average
Your land is one point inside Dunbar
Everything above resolves to Dunbar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 681 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 Dunbar Average
Dunbar Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Dunbar
- ●One soil character for all of Dunbar
- ●Frost dates read at Dunbar's scale: May 9 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunbar's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunbar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunbar, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunbar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunbar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunbar average
How we know this about Dunbar
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 Dunbar’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 Dunbar
When does frost risk typically end in Dunbar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunbar typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Dunbar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunbar typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunbar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunbar sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 23, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunbar?
The federal record around Dunbar shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dunbar?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dunbar's scale — its 4b band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunbar'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 Dunbar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dunbar's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 681 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunbar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunbar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 7 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunbar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunbar's boundary and the 681 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunbar'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 Dunbar's 681 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marinette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marinette 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 Marinette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunbar's 681 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunbar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 681 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Dunbar-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinDunbar sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.