Junction City, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Junction City, 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 Junction City 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 Junction City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Junction City — the short answer
Junction City, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 965 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 965 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 Junction City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Junction City's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Junction City
Each reading below is measured for Junction City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJunction City runs about 174 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
MeasuredJunction City 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 Junction City is in
Junction City sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Junction City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Portage County.
What Grows in Junction City
Every plant below cleared Junction City's own zone 4b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Junction City?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Junction City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Junction City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PORTAGE CNTY PLANNING DEPTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BERNHAGEN CHEV SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Mallehs Vista Villa FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ERVIN MUSCHNICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EUNICE NITZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JJ TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MAIN ST ROADWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BILL BECKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PT-24/06E/02-0109Nitrate · 2400 ft
- JUNCTION CITY MUNICIPAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- The Store #80Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RUTH FREDRICKSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Junction City'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 Junction City.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Junction City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Junction City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Junction City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Junction City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Junction City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Junction City
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 Junction City average
Your land is one point inside Junction City
Everything above resolves to Junction City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 965 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 Junction City Average
Junction City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Junction City
- ●One soil character for all of Junction City
- ●Frost dates read at Junction City's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Junction City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Junction City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Junction City, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Junction City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Junction City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Junction City average
How we know this about Junction City
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 Junction City’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 Junction City
When does frost risk typically end in Junction City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Junction City typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Junction City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Junction City typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Junction City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Junction City sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 2, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Junction City?
The federal record around Junction City shows 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 Junction City?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Junction City's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Junction City'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 Junction City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Junction City's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 965 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Junction City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Junction City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 16 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Junction City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Junction City's boundary and the 965 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Junction City's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Junction City's 965 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Portage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Portage 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 Portage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Junction City's 965 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Junction City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 965 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Junction City-wide figureread your own land →
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