Gillett, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gillett, 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 Gillett 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 Gillett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gillett — the short answer
Gillett, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 864 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 864 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 Gillett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gillett's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gillett
Each reading below is measured for Gillett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGillett runs about 165 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
MeasuredGillett 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 Gillett is in
Gillett sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gillett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oconto County.
What Grows in Gillett
Every plant below cleared Gillett's own zone 5a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gillett?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Gillett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gillett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pulcifer Mechanics IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- GEORGE & BONNIE MUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- HOWL N GROOMUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WI RNG HUB NORTH LLCBrownfields · 300 ft
- ZAHNS CHRYSLER PLYMOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- QUADES BEN FRANKLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- P & W COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WESTERFELD OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Patrick MurphyUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Szymanski - Swearingen Investments LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #9424Brownfields · 500 ft
- EARL KAHLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gillett'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 Gillett.
Total Sites
253
within ~10 miles of Gillett
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gillett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gillett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gillett, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gillett — CAFO (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (174 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gillett
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 Gillett average
Your land is one point inside Gillett
Everything above resolves to Gillett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 864 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 city 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 Gillett Average
Gillett Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Gillett
- ●One soil character for all of Gillett
- ●Frost dates read at Gillett's scale: May 1 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gillett's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gillett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gillett, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gillett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gillett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gillett average
How we know this about Gillett
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gillett’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Gillett
When does frost risk typically end in Gillett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gillett typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Gillett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gillett typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gillett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gillett sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 29, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gillett?
The federal record around Gillett is a meaningful one — 253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (174), 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 Gillett?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gillett's scale — its 5a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gillett'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 Gillett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gillett's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 864 acres it covers and 253 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gillett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gillett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 13 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gillett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gillett's boundary and the 864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gillett's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gillett's 864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oconto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oconto 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 Oconto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gillett's 864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gillett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 864 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 Gillett-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinGillett sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides