Germantown, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Germantown, 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 Germantown 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 Germantown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Germantown — the short answer
Germantown, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 22K 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 Germantown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Germantown's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Germantown
Each reading below is measured for Germantown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGermantown runs about 175 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
MeasuredGermantown 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 Germantown is in
Germantown sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Germantown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Germantown
Every plant below cleared Germantown's own zone 5b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Germantown?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Germantown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Germantown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Village Of Germantown DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STONE CONTAINER CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Main Street Lift StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GERMANTOWN WATER UTILITYPFAS · 2600 ft
- WN-09/20E/21-0351Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- BANNER WELDER INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WESTROCK CP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WASHINGTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Germantown High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NEUS SUPPLY LINE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BETTER BRANDS DIST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BETTER BRANDS DISTRIBUTING INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Germantown'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 Germantown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Germantown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Germantown, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 175 sites within ~10 miles of Germantown. 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 Germantown
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 Germantown average
Your land is one point inside Germantown
Everything above resolves to Germantown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Germantown Average
Germantown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Germantown
- ●One soil character for all of Germantown
- ●Frost dates read at Germantown's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Germantown's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Germantown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Germantown, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Germantown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Germantown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Germantown average
How we know this about Germantown
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 Germantown’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 Germantown
When does frost risk typically end in Germantown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Germantown typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Germantown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Germantown typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Germantown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Germantown sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 3, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Germantown?
The federal record around Germantown runs heavier than most — 2,210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (897), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Germantown?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Germantown's scale — its 5b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Germantown'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 Germantown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Germantown's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,004 acres it covers and 2,210 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Germantown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Germantown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 17 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Germantown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Germantown's boundary and the 22,004 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Germantown'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 Germantown's 22,004 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Germantown's 22,004 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Germantown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,004 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 Germantown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinGermantown sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides