Exeland, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Exeland, 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 Exeland 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 Exeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Exeland — the short answer
Exeland, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 769 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 769 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 4a is Exeland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Exeland's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Exeland
Each reading below is measured for Exeland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredExeland runs about 154 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
MeasuredExeland sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Exeland is in
Exeland sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Exeland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sawyer County.
What Grows in Exeland
Every plant below cleared Exeland's own zone 4a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Exeland?
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 Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Exeland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Exeland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Exeland DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- R J BLACK TOPPINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GERBER BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TOWN OF MURRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WI DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CLEMENTS HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- EXELAND ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HAROLD BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NORTHERN BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PHILIP P THOMPSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SAWYER COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Exeland'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 Exeland.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Exeland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Exeland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Exeland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Exeland, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Exeland. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Exeland
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 Exeland average
Your land is one point inside Exeland
Everything above resolves to Exeland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 769 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 Exeland Average
Exeland Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Exeland
- ●One soil character for all of Exeland
- ●Frost dates read at Exeland's scale: May 5 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Exeland's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Exeland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Exeland, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Exeland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Exeland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Exeland average
How we know this about Exeland
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 Exeland’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 Exeland
When does frost risk typically end in Exeland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Exeland typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Exeland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Exeland typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Exeland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Exeland sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 22, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Exeland?
The federal record around Exeland is a meaningful one — 52 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), 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 Exeland?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Exeland's scale — its 4a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Exeland'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 Exeland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Exeland's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 769 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Exeland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Exeland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 6 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Exeland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Exeland's boundary and the 769 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Exeland'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 Exeland's 769 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sawyer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sawyer 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 Sawyer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Exeland's 769 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Exeland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 769 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 Exeland-wide figureread your own land →
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