Lake Mills, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Mills, 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 Mills 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 Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Mills — the short answer
Lake Mills, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 5b is Lake Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Mills's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Mills
Each reading below is measured for Lake Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Mills runs about 190 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 Mills 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 Lake Mills is in
Lake Mills sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Lake Mills
Every plant below cleared Lake Mills's own zone 5b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Mills?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KLINK OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6861Brownfields · 700 ft
- HAMLIN INCToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- HAMLIN BREEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CREPACO INC NORTH PLANTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- NELSON GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NU WOOL INSULATION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SELJAN TOOL CO INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CITY OF LAKE MILLS MUNICIPAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LAKE MILLS POLICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- EAST LAKE AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- GTE - LAKE MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Mills'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 Mills.
Total Sites
471
within ~10 miles of Lake Mills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Mills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Mills — CAFO (5 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Mills
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 Mills average
Your land is one point inside Lake Mills
Everything above resolves to Lake Mills 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 city 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 Mills Average
Lake Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lake Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Mills's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Mills's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Mills, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Mills average
How we know this about Lake Mills
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lake Mills’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Mills typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Lake Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Mills typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Mills sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Mills?
The federal record around Lake Mills is a meaningful one — 471 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (263), 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 Lake Mills?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Mills's scale — its 5b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Mills'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 Mills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Mills's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,676 acres it covers and 471 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Mills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 471 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Mills's boundary and the 2,676 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Mills'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 Lake Mills's 2,676 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Mills's 2,676 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,676 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 Lake Mills-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinLake Mills sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides