Ellison Bay, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ellison Bay, 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 Ellison Bay 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 Ellison Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ellison Bay — the short answer
Ellison Bay, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- 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 Ellison Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellison Bay's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellison Bay
Each reading below is measured for Ellison Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllison Bay runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEllison Bay 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 Ellison Bay is in
Ellison Bay sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ellison Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Door County.
What Grows in Ellison Bay
Every plant below cleared Ellison Bay's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellison Bay?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Ellison Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellison Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Klenke GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CEDAR GROVE RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HERITAGE HARBORUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Ellison Bay ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WALLACE DAUBNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Christ Community Church CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Clifford AndersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- NEWPORT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- DR-32/28E/25-0244Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- GARY H OLSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Town Of Liberty GroveUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CAPTAIN PAULS CONDOMINIUMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellison Bay'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 Ellison Bay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellison Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellison Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellison Bay, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Ellison Bay. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ellison Bay
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 Ellison Bay average
Your land is one point inside Ellison Bay
Everything above resolves to Ellison Bay 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 Ellison Bay Average
Ellison Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ellison Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Ellison Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Ellison Bay's scale: Apr 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellison Bay's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellison Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellison Bay, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellison Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellison Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellison Bay average
How we know this about Ellison Bay
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 Ellison Bay’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 Ellison Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Ellison Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellison Bay typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Ellison Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellison Bay typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellison Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellison Bay sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 27, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellison Bay?
The federal record around Ellison Bay shows 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ellison Bay?
From about Oct 11 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 Nov 10 (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 Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ellison Bay's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellison Bay'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 Ellison Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ellison Bay's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,703 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellison Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellison Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Nov 10 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellison Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellison Bay's boundary and the 1,703 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ellison Bay's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ellison Bay's 1,703 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Door County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Door 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 Door County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ellison Bay's 1,703 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellison Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,703 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 Ellison Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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