Hillsboro, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hillsboro, 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 Hillsboro 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 Hillsboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hillsboro — the short answer
Hillsboro, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 902 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 902 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 Hillsboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hillsboro's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hillsboro
Each reading below is measured for Hillsboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHillsboro runs about 169 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
MeasuredHillsboro 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 Hillsboro is in
Hillsboro sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hillsboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vernon County.
What Grows in Hillsboro
Every plant below cleared Hillsboro's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hillsboro?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Hillsboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hillsboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Novy ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6914Brownfields · 750 ft
- LAND O'LAKES - HILLSBOROBrownfields · 950 ft
- MIDWEST ELECTRO TECH CORPBrownfields · 950 ft
- VE-14/01E/35-0010Nitrate · 1000 ft
- HILLSBORO CO-OP FERTILIZER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- VERNON CNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FOREMOST FARMS USAToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- LAND O'LAKES - HILLSBOROToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- City Of HillsboroUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- E HAGENAH LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KWIK TRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hillsboro'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 Hillsboro.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Hillsboro
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hillsboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hillsboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hillsboro, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 109 sites within ~10 miles of Hillsboro. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hillsboro
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 Hillsboro average
Your land is one point inside Hillsboro
Everything above resolves to Hillsboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 902 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 Hillsboro Average
Hillsboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Hillsboro
- ●One soil character for all of Hillsboro
- ●Frost dates read at Hillsboro's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hillsboro's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hillsboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hillsboro, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hillsboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hillsboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hillsboro average
How we know this about Hillsboro
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 Hillsboro’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 Hillsboro
When does frost risk typically end in Hillsboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hillsboro typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Hillsboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hillsboro typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hillsboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hillsboro sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 30, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hillsboro?
The federal record around Hillsboro shows 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hillsboro?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hillsboro's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hillsboro'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 Hillsboro’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hillsboro's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 902 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hillsboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hillsboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 14 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hillsboro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hillsboro's boundary and the 902 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hillsboro's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hillsboro's 902 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vernon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vernon 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 Vernon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hillsboro's 902 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hillsboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 902 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 Hillsboro-wide figureread your own land →
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