Fairwater, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairwater, 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 Fairwater 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 Fairwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairwater — the short answer
Fairwater, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 470 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 470 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 5a is Fairwater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairwater's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairwater
Each reading below is measured for Fairwater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairwater runs about 182 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
MeasuredFairwater sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Fairwater is in
Fairwater sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairwater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fond du Lac County.
What Grows in Fairwater
Every plant below cleared Fairwater's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairwater?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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.
Documented around Fairwater
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Fairwater, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairwater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairwater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAIRWATER GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Badger Mining CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FAIRWATER FEED & SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- THE LARSEN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Village MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BADGER MINING - FAIRWATERBrownfields · 450 ft
- Stellmacher Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- VERDYN ANDERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Craig L LaperUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FL-15/14E/29-0058Nitrate · 1200 ft
- ALLENS INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ALLENS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairwater'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 Fairwater.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairwater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairwater
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairwater, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 265 sites within ~10 miles of Fairwater. 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 Fairwater
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 Fairwater average
Your land is one point inside Fairwater
Everything above resolves to Fairwater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 470 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 Fairwater Average
Fairwater Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Fairwater
- ●One soil character for all of Fairwater
- ●Frost dates read at Fairwater's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairwater's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairwater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairwater, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairwater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairwater average
How we know this about Fairwater
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 Fairwater’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 Fairwater
When does frost risk typically end in Fairwater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairwater typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fairwater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairwater typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairwater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairwater sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairwater?
The federal record around Fairwater is a meaningful one — 396 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (265), 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 Fairwater?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairwater's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairwater'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 Fairwater’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairwater's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 470 acres it covers and 396 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairwater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairwater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 396 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairwater, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairwater's boundary and the 470 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairwater's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairwaterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairwater's 470 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fond du Lac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fond du Lac 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 Fond du Lac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairwater's 470 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairwater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 470 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 Fairwater-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinFairwater sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides