Hustisford, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hustisford, 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 Hustisford 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 Hustisford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hustisford — the short answer
Hustisford, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 714 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 714 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 5a is Hustisford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hustisford's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hustisford
Each reading below is measured for Hustisford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHustisford runs about 186 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
MeasuredHustisford sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Hustisford is in
Hustisford sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hustisford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dodge County.
What Grows in Hustisford
Every plant below cleared Hustisford's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hustisford?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 18 — 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.
Documented around Hustisford
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Hustisford, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hustisford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hustisford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DG-10/16E/09-0049Nitrate · 500 ft
- EDGAR SCHILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- B & B PROPERTY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HUSTISFORD FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VILLAGE OF HUSTISFORD TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Hustisford Auto Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ITW BEE LEITZKEToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- RIVER VALLEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FEED MILL CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HUSTISFORD WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SCHULTZ BUS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- United Cooperative C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hustisford'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 Hustisford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hustisford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hustisford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hustisford, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Hustisford. 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 Hustisford
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 Hustisford average
Your land is one point inside Hustisford
Everything above resolves to Hustisford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 714 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 Hustisford Average
Hustisford Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hustisford
- ●One soil character for all of Hustisford
- ●Frost dates read at Hustisford's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hustisford's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hustisford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hustisford, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hustisford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hustisford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hustisford average
How we know this about Hustisford
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 Hustisford’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 Hustisford
When does frost risk typically end in Hustisford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hustisford 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 Hustisford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hustisford typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hustisford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hustisford sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 4, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hustisford?
The federal record around Hustisford is a meaningful one — 325 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (189), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hustisford?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hustisford's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hustisford'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 Hustisford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hustisford's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 714 acres it covers and 325 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hustisford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hustisford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 18 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 325 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hustisford, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hustisford's boundary and the 714 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hustisford's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hustisfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hustisford's 714 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dodge 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 Dodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hustisford's 714 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hustisford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 714 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Hustisford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinHustisford sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides