Hales Corners, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Hales Corners, 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 Hales Corners 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 Hales Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hales Corners — the short answer
Hales Corners, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- 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 5b is Hales Corners's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hales Corners's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hales Corners
Each reading below is measured for Hales Corners itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHales Corners runs about 192 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
MeasuredHales Corners 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 Hales Corners is in
Hales Corners sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hales Corners's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in Hales Corners
Every plant below cleared Hales Corners's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hales Corners?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Hales Corners
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hales Corners. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 2372Brownfields · 450 ft
- PENSKE AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 550 ft
- ROUNDY'S 366Brownfields · 1100 ft
- AUTOZONE #1712Brownfields · 1200 ft
- SPUR STATION #3104Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Shell #4282Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALGREENS CO #7568Brownfields · 1200 ft
- JOANNE W LANGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HALES CORNERS FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WELCHS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CLARK PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LEONA WELCH FOLEYBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hales Corners'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 Hales Corners.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hales Corners
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hales Corners
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Hales Corners
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 Hales Corners average
Your land is one point inside Hales Corners
Everything above resolves to Hales Corners 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 Hales Corners Average
Hales Corners Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hales Corners
- ●One soil character for all of Hales Corners
- ●Frost dates read at Hales Corners's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hales Corners's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hales Corners
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hales Corners, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hales Corners averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hales Corners — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hales Corners average
How we know this about Hales Corners
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 Hales Corners’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 Hales Corners
When does frost risk typically end in Hales Corners?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hales Corners typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Hales Corners?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hales Corners typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hales Corners?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hales Corners sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 11, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hales Corners?
The federal record around Hales Corners runs heavier than most — 4,732 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,331), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hales Corners?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hales Corners's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hales Corners'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 Hales Corners’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hales Corners's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,043 acres it covers and 4,732 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hales Corners's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hales Corners's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 25 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,732 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hales Corners, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hales Corners's boundary and the 2,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hales Corners'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 Hales Corners's 2,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Milwaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hales Corners's 2,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hales Corners you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Hales Corners-wide figureread your own land →