Hobart, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hobart, 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 Hobart 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 Hobart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hobart — the short answer
Hobart, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 Hobart's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hobart's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hobart
Each reading below is measured for Hobart itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHobart runs about 185 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
MeasuredHobart 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 Hobart is in
Hobart sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hobart's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brown County.
What Grows in Hobart
Every plant below cleared Hobart's own zone 5b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hobart?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Hobart
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hobart. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BN-23/19E/02-1185Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WESTSIDE GARAGE & AUTO SALVAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ONEIDA HEALTH CARE CENTERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Bernard M RoedenUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- L & E MACHINEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MIDWEST CLASSICSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GARY J BASTEN CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HIGHVIEW CUSTOM FABRICATINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- EXECUTIVE AIR FUEL FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TROWELON INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- BN-23/20E/06-1276 U.S.G.S.Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- BN-23/20E/06-1257 ONEIDA FH1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hobart'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 Hobart.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hobart
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hobart
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hobart, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 112 sites within ~10 miles of Hobart. 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 Hobart
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 Hobart average
Your land is one point inside Hobart
Everything above resolves to Hobart as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Hobart Average
Hobart Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hobart
- ●One soil character for all of Hobart
- ●Frost dates read at Hobart's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hobart's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hobart
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hobart, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hobart averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hobart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hobart average
How we know this about Hobart
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 Hobart’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 Hobart
When does frost risk typically end in Hobart?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hobart typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Hobart?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hobart typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hobart?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hobart sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 7, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hobart?
The federal record around Hobart is a meaningful one — 1,678 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (878), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hobart?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hobart's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hobart'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 Hobart’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hobart's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,133 acres it covers and 1,678 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hobart's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hobart's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 21 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,678 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hobart, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hobart's boundary and the 21,133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hobart'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 Hobart's 21,133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brown County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brown 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 Brown County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hobart's 21,133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hobart you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,133 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Hobart-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinHobart sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides