Lake Sherwood, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Sherwood, 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 Sherwood 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 Sherwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Sherwood — the short answer
Lake Sherwood, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 675 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 675 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 Sherwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Sherwood's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Sherwood
Each reading below is measured for Lake Sherwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Sherwood runs about 166 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 Sherwood 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 Sherwood is in
Lake Sherwood sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Sherwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Lake Sherwood
Every plant below cleared Lake Sherwood's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Sherwood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Lake Sherwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Sherwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLES T NELSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- LAKE CAMELOT ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LAKE CAMELOT ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Richard KlunUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HAROLD HOWARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DEAN P LAINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Lake Sherwood Property Owners AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MARLENE PAVELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CASIMIR MIROSLAWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EBBE REALTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ASPIRUS RIVERVIEW CLINIC - ROMEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- AD-20/06E/15-0057Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Sherwood'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 Sherwood.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Lake Sherwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Sherwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Sherwood
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Sherwood
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 Sherwood average
Your land is one point inside Lake Sherwood
Everything above resolves to Lake Sherwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 675 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 Sherwood Average
Lake Sherwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lake Sherwood
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Sherwood
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Sherwood's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Sherwood's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Sherwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Sherwood, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Sherwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Sherwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Sherwood average
How we know this about Lake Sherwood
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 Sherwood’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 Sherwood
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Sherwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Sherwood typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Lake Sherwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Sherwood 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 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Sherwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Sherwood sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 27, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Sherwood?
The federal record around Lake Sherwood shows 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Lake Sherwood?
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 Sherwood's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Sherwood'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 Sherwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Sherwood's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 675 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Sherwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Sherwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 11 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Sherwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Sherwood's boundary and the 675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Sherwood'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 Sherwood's 675 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 Sherwood's 675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Sherwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Sherwood-wide figureread your own land →