Long Lake, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Long Lake, 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 Long Lake 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 Long Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Long Lake — the short answer
Long Lake, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 169 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 169 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 Long Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Lake's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Lake
Each reading below is measured for Long Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Lake runs about 135 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLong Lake 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 Long Lake is in
Long Lake sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Long Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Florence County.
What Grows in Long Lake
Every plant below cleared Long Lake's own zone 4b and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Long Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HENRY J NIEMEYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- US FOREST SVC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Long Lake Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DOLORES HALADAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FLORENCE COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- KAHLS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BERNIE NOWAK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- LUMBERJACK CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ALVIN EAST LANDFILL/NICOLET NAT' FORESTSuperfund · 1100 ft
- FR-39/14E/13-0026Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- KLIMAS BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SPORTSMAN BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Lake'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 Long Lake.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Long Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Long Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Long Lake — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Long Lake
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 Long Lake average
Your land is one point inside Long Lake
Everything above resolves to Long Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 169 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 Long Lake Average
Long Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Long Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Long Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Long Lake's scale: May 19 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Lake's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Lake, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Lake average
How we know this about Long Lake
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 Long Lake’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 Long Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Long Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Lake typically lands around May 19, 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 Jun 9.
When is the first frost in Long Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Lake typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Lake sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 19 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 9 to Sep 17, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Lake?
The federal record around Long Lake is a meaningful one — 55 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Long Lake?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Long Lake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 19 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Long Lake's scale — its 4b band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Lake'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 Long Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Long Lake's own scale — its own ~135-day season between 28°F freezes, the 169 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 19 and Oct 1 and the ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Lake's boundary and the 169 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Long Lake's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Lake's 169 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Florence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Florence 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 Florence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Long Lake's 169 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 169 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 Long Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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