Kimberly, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Kimberly, 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 Kimberly 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 Kimberly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kimberly — the short answer
Kimberly, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- 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 Kimberly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kimberly's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kimberly
Each reading below is measured for Kimberly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKimberly 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
MeasuredKimberly 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 Kimberly is in
Kimberly sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kimberly's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Outagamie County is mostly North Central Hardwood Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kimberly
Every plant below cleared Kimberly's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kimberly?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Kimberly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kimberly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIMBERLY WATERWORKSPFAS · 550 ft
- H B FULLER COBrownfields · 550 ft
- THEDA CARE PHYSICIANS - KIMBERLYBrownfields · 650 ft
- MIKE FOX TRUCKINGBrownfields · 750 ft
- Kimberly Area School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KIMBERLY VILBrownfields · 2000 ft
- K Mart #3470Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Village Of Kimberly Municipal Builidng/GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KIMBERLY DX SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- You Pump BpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VILLAGE AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STEPHEN DREIER PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kimberly'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 Kimberly.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kimberly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kimberly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kimberly, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 129 sites within ~10 miles of Kimberly. 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 Kimberly
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 Kimberly average
Your land is one point inside Kimberly
Everything above resolves to Kimberly 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 Kimberly Average
Kimberly Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kimberly
- ●One soil character for all of Kimberly
- ●Frost dates read at Kimberly's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kimberly's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kimberly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kimberly, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kimberly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kimberly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kimberly average
How we know this about Kimberly
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 Kimberly’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 Kimberly
When does frost risk typically end in Kimberly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kimberly typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Kimberly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kimberly typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kimberly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kimberly sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 9, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kimberly?
The federal record around Kimberly runs heavier than most — 1,774 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (991), the nearest PFAS record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kimberly?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kimberly's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kimberly'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 Kimberly’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kimberly's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,470 acres it covers and 1,774 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kimberly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kimberly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 23 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,774 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kimberly, the closest PFAS record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kimberly's boundary and the 1,470 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kimberly sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kimberly's 1,470 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Outagamie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Outagamie 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 Outagamie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kimberly's 1,470 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kimberly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,470 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Kimberly-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinKimberly sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides