Luck, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Luck, 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 Luck 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 Luck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Luck — the short answer
Luck, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Luck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luck's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Luck
Each reading below is measured for Luck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLuck runs about 176 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
MeasuredLuck 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 Luck is in
Luck sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Luck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Luck
Every plant below cleared Luck's own zone 4b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Luck?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Luck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Luck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LUCK GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LUCK PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PK-36/17W/28-0041Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- LUCK MUNICIPLE GOLF COURSEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- LUCK MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PEPER TIRE & ALIGNMENTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LUCK MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DAVE DAVIS FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LUCK PHARMACYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- LUCK LAUNDROMATUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AMERY EQUITY CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GILBERT KROGHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luck'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 Luck.
Total Sites
210
within ~10 miles of Luck
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Luck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Luck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luck, Mining runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Luck. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Luck
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 Luck average
Your land is one point inside Luck
Everything above resolves to Luck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Luck Average
Luck Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Luck
- ●One soil character for all of Luck
- ●Frost dates read at Luck's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luck's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Luck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luck, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luck average
How we know this about Luck
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 Luck’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 Luck
When does frost risk typically end in Luck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luck typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Luck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Luck typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Luck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luck sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 4, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luck?
The federal record around Luck is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Luck?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Luck's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luck'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 Luck’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Luck's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,262 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Luck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Luck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 18 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Luck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Luck's boundary and the 1,262 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Luck'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 Luck's 1,262 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Luck's 1,262 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Luck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,262 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Luck-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinLuck sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides