Gays Mills, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gays Mills, 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 Gays Mills 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 Gays Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gays Mills — the short answer
Gays Mills, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Gays Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gays Mills's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gays Mills
Each reading below is measured for Gays Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGays Mills runs about 170 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
MeasuredGays Mills 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 Gays Mills is in
Gays Mills sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gays Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Gays Mills
Every plant below cleared Gays Mills's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gays Mills?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Gays Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gays Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- The MarketplaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #22801Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- GAYS MILLS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CRAWFORD COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TODDS KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CRAWFORD ELECTRIC CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FINNELL SPORTSHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CR-10/04W/28-0014Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Rebens Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GREAT RIVERS FS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BARNUM ARCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CARL ZIMPELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gays Mills'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 Gays Mills.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gays Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gays Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gays Mills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Gays Mills. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gays Mills
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 Gays Mills average
Your land is one point inside Gays Mills
Everything above resolves to Gays Mills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Gays Mills Average
Gays Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Gays Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Gays Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Gays Mills's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gays Mills's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gays Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gays Mills, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gays Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gays Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gays Mills average
How we know this about Gays Mills
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 Gays Mills’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 Gays Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Gays Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gays Mills typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Gays Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gays Mills typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gays Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gays Mills sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 30, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gays Mills?
The federal record around Gays Mills shows 113 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), 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 Gays Mills?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gays Mills's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gays Mills'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 Gays Mills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gays Mills's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,132 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gays Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gays Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 14 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gays Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gays Mills's boundary and the 3,132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gays Mills's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gays Mills's 3,132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gays Mills's 3,132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gays Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,132 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 Gays Mills-wide figureread your own land →
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