Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Wisconsin, 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 Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Wisconsin — the short answer
Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 5a is Lake Wisconsin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Wisconsin's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Wisconsin
Each reading below is measured for Lake Wisconsin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Wisconsin runs about 181 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 Wisconsin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Wisconsin is in
Lake Wisconsin sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Wisconsin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Lake Wisconsin
Every plant below cleared Lake Wisconsin's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Wisconsin?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. 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 Wisconsin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Wisconsin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EARL & ELAINE ALBRECHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BRIDGE BAIT & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LOREN TARPLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VILLAGE OF MERRIMACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- W C NADOLNYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- M & I BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MERRIMAC FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MERRIMAC MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Village Of Merrimac - Cook StreetUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SK-10/07E/02-0050Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- EUGENE RIPPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Ferry Landing Resort & MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Wisconsin'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 Wisconsin.
Total Sites
320
within ~10 miles of Lake Wisconsin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Wisconsin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Wisconsin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Wisconsin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 199 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Wisconsin. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Wisconsin
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 Wisconsin average
Your land is one point inside Lake Wisconsin
Everything above resolves to Lake Wisconsin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Wisconsin Average
Lake Wisconsin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lake Wisconsin
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Wisconsin
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Wisconsin's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Wisconsin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Wisconsin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Wisconsin, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Wisconsin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Wisconsin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Wisconsin average
How we know this about Lake Wisconsin
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 Wisconsin’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 Wisconsin
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Wisconsin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Wisconsin typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Lake Wisconsin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Wisconsin 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Wisconsin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Wisconsin sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Wisconsin?
The federal record around Lake Wisconsin is a meaningful one — 320 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (199), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Wisconsin?
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 Lake Wisconsin's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Wisconsin'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 Wisconsin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Wisconsin's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,574 acres it covers and 320 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Wisconsin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Wisconsin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 320 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Wisconsin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Wisconsin's boundary and the 8,574 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Wisconsin'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 Wisconsin's 8,574 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Wisconsin's 8,574 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Wisconsin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,574 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Wisconsin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinLake Wisconsin sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides