Highland, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Highland, 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 Highland 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 Highland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Highland — the short answer
Highland, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 728 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 728 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 Highland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Highland's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Highland
Each reading below is measured for Highland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHighland runs about 190 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
MeasuredHighland 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 Highland is in
Highland sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Highland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iowa County.
What Grows in Highland
Every plant below cleared Highland's own zone 5b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Highland?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. 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 Highland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Highland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOBS UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Lewis MineMining · 350 ft
- HYING HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ESSER BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TOWN OF HIGHLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- JT's Gas & Go IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- R J Richgels Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HIGHLAND MACHINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Michek Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MICHEK OIL CO BULK PLTBrownfields · 1200 ft
- RITCHIE IMPLEMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHIMNEY SPECIALISTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Highland'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 Highland.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Highland
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Highland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Highland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Highland, Mining runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Highland. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Highland
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 Highland average
Your land is one point inside Highland
Everything above resolves to Highland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 728 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 Highland Average
Highland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Highland
- ●One soil character for all of Highland
- ●Frost dates read at Highland's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Highland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Highland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Highland, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Highland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Highland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Highland average
How we know this about Highland
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 Highland’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 Highland
When does frost risk typically end in Highland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Highland typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Highland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Highland 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Highland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Highland sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 8, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Highland?
The federal record around Highland runs heavier than most — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Highland?
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 Highland's scale — its 5b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Highland'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 Highland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Highland's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 728 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Highland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Highland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 22 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Highland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Highland's boundary and the 728 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Highland's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Highland's 728 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iowa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iowa 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 Iowa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Highland's 728 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Highland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 728 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 Highland-wide figureread your own land →
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