Harrison, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Harrison, 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 Harrison 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 Harrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Harrison — the short answer
Harrison, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 20K 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 20K 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 Harrison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harrison's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harrison
Each reading below is measured for Harrison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHarrison runs about 189 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
MeasuredHarrison 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 Harrison is in
Harrison sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Harrison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calumet County.
What Grows in Harrison
Every plant below cleared Harrison's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harrison?
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 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 22 — 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 Harrison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harrison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Town Of Harrison-GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JOYCE MILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- White Clover Dairy Inc - Sherwood PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BELGIOIOSO CHEESE INC SHERWOOD PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- Carl LamersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- High Cliff State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Sherwood MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- C & S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Sherwood ElevatorUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TONY SIEDELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SHERWOOD SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SHERWOOD WINK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harrison'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 Harrison.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harrison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harrison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harrison, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 123 sites within ~10 miles of Harrison. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Harrison
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 Harrison average
Your land is one point inside Harrison
Everything above resolves to Harrison as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Harrison Average
Harrison Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Harrison
- ●One soil character for all of Harrison
- ●Frost dates read at Harrison's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harrison's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harrison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harrison, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harrison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harrison average
How we know this about Harrison
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 Harrison’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 Harrison
When does frost risk typically end in Harrison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harrison 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 Harrison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harrison typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harrison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harrison sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 8, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harrison?
The federal record around Harrison runs heavier than most — 1,579 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (887), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Harrison?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Harrison's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harrison'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 Harrison’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Harrison's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,417 acres it covers and 1,579 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harrison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harrison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 22 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,579 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harrison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harrison's boundary and the 20,417 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harrison'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 Harrison's 20,417 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calumet County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calumet 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 Calumet County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harrison's 20,417 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harrison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,417 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Harrison-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinHarrison sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides