Elm Grove, 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.
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 Elm Grove, 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 Elm Grove 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 Elm Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elm Grove — the short answer
Elm Grove, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 Elm Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elm Grove's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elm Grove
Each reading below is measured for Elm Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElm Grove runs about 197 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
MeasuredElm Grove 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 Elm Grove is in
Elm Grove sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elm Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waukesha County.
What Grows in Elm Grove
Every plant below cleared Elm Grove's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elm Grove?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Elm Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elm Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROOKFIELD WATER UTILITYPFAS · 0 ft
- JOHN VERDAYNEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- VILLAGE OF ELM GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- EDWARD D CHINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GOEHRIG CHARLOTTE H AND GEORGE H JRBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BURR RANDYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SOO LINE RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KANAVAS LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WK-07/20E/26-0127Nitrate · 2300 ft
- ELM BLDG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- REINDERS BROTHERS INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- REINDERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elm Grove'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 Elm Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elm Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elm Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elm Grove, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 433 sites within ~10 miles of Elm Grove. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Elm Grove
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 Elm Grove average
Your land is one point inside Elm Grove
Everything above resolves to Elm Grove 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 Elm Grove Average
Elm Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Elm Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Elm Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Elm Grove's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elm Grove's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elm Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elm Grove, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elm Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elm Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elm Grove average
How we know this about Elm Grove
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 Elm Grove’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 Elm Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Elm Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elm Grove typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Elm Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elm Grove typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elm Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elm Grove sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 13, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elm Grove?
The federal record around Elm Grove runs heavier than most — 6,782 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,293), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elm Grove?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elm Grove's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elm Grove'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 Elm Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elm Grove's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,087 acres it covers and 6,782 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elm Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elm Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 27 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,782 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elm Grove, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elm Grove's boundary and the 2,087 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elm Grove'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 Elm Grove's 2,087 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 Elm Grove's 2,087 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elm Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,087 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Elm Grove-wide figureread your own land →