Howards Grove, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Howards Grove, 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 Howards Grove 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 Howards Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Howards Grove — the short answer
Howards Grove, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Howards Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Howards Grove's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Howards Grove
Each reading below is measured for Howards Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHowards Grove 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
MeasuredHowards Grove 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 Howards Grove is in
Howards Grove sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Howards Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sheboygan County.
What Grows in Howards Grove
Every plant below cleared Howards Grove'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 Howards Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Howards Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Howards Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAROLD KARSTEDTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GAIL STEIDLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BITTER NEUMANN & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Wallos Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WALLOS SERVICEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ZIMMER FUNERAL HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Petro Center #8Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Petro Center #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BRENNAN CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PETRO CENTER 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RONS ELECTRIC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Village Of Howards Groove Wastewater T PUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Howards Grove'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 Howards Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Howards Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Howards Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Howards Grove, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Howards Grove. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Howards Grove
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 Howards Grove average
Your land is one point inside Howards Grove
Everything above resolves to Howards Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Howards Grove Average
Howards Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Howards Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Howards Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Howards Grove's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Howards Grove's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Howards Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Howards Grove, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Howards Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Howards Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Howards Grove average
How we know this about Howards Grove
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 Howards Grove’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 Howards Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Howards Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Howards Grove typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Howards Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Howards Grove typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Howards Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Howards Grove sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 13, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Howards Grove?
The federal record around Howards Grove is a meaningful one — 930 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (553), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Howards Grove?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Howards Grove's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Howards Grove'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 Howards Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Howards Grove's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,424 acres it covers and 930 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Howards Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Howards Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 27 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 930 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Howards Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Howards Grove's boundary and the 1,424 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 Howards Grove'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 Howards Grove's 1,424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sheboygan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sheboygan 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 Sheboygan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Howards Grove's 1,424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Howards Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Howards Grove-wide figureread your own land →