Lake Arrowhead, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Arrowhead, 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 Lake Arrowhead 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 Lake Arrowhead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Arrowhead — the short answer
Lake Arrowhead, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Lake Arrowhead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Arrowhead's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Arrowhead
Each reading below is measured for Lake Arrowhead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Arrowhead runs about 167 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
MeasuredLake Arrowhead 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 Lake Arrowhead is in
Lake Arrowhead sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Arrowhead's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Lake Arrowhead
Every plant below cleared Lake Arrowhead's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Arrowhead?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Lake Arrowhead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Arrowhead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WI DEPT OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- LAKE ARROWHEAD GOLF MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Lake Arrowhead Club House & Golf CourseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ASPIRUS RIVERVIEW CLINIC - ROMEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- EBBE REALTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MARLENE PAVELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAKE ARROWHEAD SALES OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Lake Sherwood Property Owners AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Town Of Rome Town HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Pritzls Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DEAN P LAINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HAROLD HOWARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Arrowhead'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 Lake Arrowhead.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Lake Arrowhead
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Arrowhead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Arrowhead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Arrowhead, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 95 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Arrowhead. 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 Lake Arrowhead
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 Lake Arrowhead average
Your land is one point inside Lake Arrowhead
Everything above resolves to Lake Arrowhead as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Lake Arrowhead Average
Lake Arrowhead Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lake Arrowhead
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Arrowhead
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Arrowhead's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Arrowhead's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Arrowhead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Arrowhead, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Arrowhead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Arrowhead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Arrowhead average
How we know this about Lake Arrowhead
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 Lake Arrowhead’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 Lake Arrowhead
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Arrowhead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Arrowhead typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Lake Arrowhead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Arrowhead typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Arrowhead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Arrowhead sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 27, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Arrowhead?
The federal record around Lake Arrowhead is a meaningful one — 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Lake Arrowhead?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Arrowhead's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Arrowhead'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 Lake Arrowhead’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Arrowhead's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,383 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Arrowhead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Arrowhead's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 11 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Arrowhead, the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Arrowhead's boundary and the 3,383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Arrowhead'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 Lake Arrowhead's 3,383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Arrowhead's 3,383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Arrowhead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,383 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Lake Arrowhead-wide figureread your own land →