Gilmanton, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gilmanton, 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 Gilmanton 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 Gilmanton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gilmanton — the short answer
Gilmanton, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Gilmanton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gilmanton's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gilmanton
Each reading below is measured for Gilmanton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGilmanton runs about 171 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
MeasuredGilmanton 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 Gilmanton is in
Gilmanton sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gilmanton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buffalo County.
What Grows in Gilmanton
Every plant below cleared Gilmanton's own zone 4b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gilmanton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 — 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 Gilmanton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gilmanton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEILEP W C CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GILMANTON MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- THE PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Gilmanton CardtrolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- B S C AUTO BODYBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- STEVEN C WEISENBECKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- BF-24/10W/33-0069Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- Town Of DoverUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- NELSONS STRAIGHTLINE AUTO CORPBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- PELKE PLUMBING & HEATING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- AUTO & TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- CITY AUTO BODY RIVERSIDE PLAZABrownfields · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gilmanton'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 Gilmanton.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Gilmanton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gilmanton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gilmanton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gilmanton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Gilmanton. 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 Gilmanton
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 Gilmanton average
Your land is one point inside Gilmanton
Everything above resolves to Gilmanton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Gilmanton Average
Gilmanton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Gilmanton
- ●One soil character for all of Gilmanton
- ●Frost dates read at Gilmanton's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gilmanton's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gilmanton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gilmanton, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gilmanton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gilmanton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gilmanton average
How we know this about Gilmanton
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 Gilmanton’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 Gilmanton
When does frost risk typically end in Gilmanton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gilmanton 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 Gilmanton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gilmanton typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gilmanton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gilmanton sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 1, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gilmanton?
The federal record around Gilmanton shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Gilmanton?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gilmanton's scale — its 4b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gilmanton'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 Gilmanton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gilmanton's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,141 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gilmanton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gilmanton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 15 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gilmanton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gilmanton's boundary and the 2,141 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gilmanton's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gilmanton's 2,141 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buffalo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buffalo 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 Buffalo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gilmanton's 2,141 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gilmanton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,141 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Gilmanton-wide figureread your own land →
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