Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Maiden Rock, 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 Maiden Rock 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 Maiden Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Maiden Rock — the short answer
Maiden Rock, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 771 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 771 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 Maiden Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maiden Rock's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maiden Rock
Each reading below is measured for Maiden Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaiden Rock runs about 172 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
MeasuredMaiden Rock 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 Maiden Rock is in
Maiden Rock sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Maiden Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pierce County.
What Grows in Maiden Rock
Every plant below cleared Maiden Rock's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maiden Rock?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Maiden Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maiden Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PI-24/16W/15-0032Nitrate · 2600 ft
- Maiden Rock LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PI-24/16W/16-0034Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- PDCT-U7 024N16W09AA 01Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- DENNIS HEWITTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- TOWN OF SALEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- RALPHS RADIO & TVUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Maiden Rock Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Wieser FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Gilbert BengstonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HAZEL V ERICKSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Maiden Rock'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 Maiden Rock.
Total Sites
152
within ~10 miles of Maiden Rock
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Maiden Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maiden Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Maiden Rock, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Maiden Rock. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Maiden Rock
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 Maiden Rock average
Your land is one point inside Maiden Rock
Everything above resolves to Maiden Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 771 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 Maiden Rock Average
Maiden Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Maiden Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Maiden Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Maiden Rock's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maiden Rock's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maiden Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maiden Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maiden Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maiden Rock average
How we know this about Maiden Rock
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 Maiden Rock’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 Maiden Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Maiden Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maiden Rock 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 Maiden Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maiden Rock typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maiden Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maiden Rock sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 30, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maiden Rock?
The federal record around Maiden Rock shows 152 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Nitrate 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 Maiden Rock?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Maiden Rock's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maiden Rock'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 Maiden Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maiden Rock's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 771 acres it covers and 152 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maiden Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maiden Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 14 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maiden Rock, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maiden Rock's boundary and the 771 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Maiden Rock's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Maiden Rock's 771 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce 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 Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maiden Rock's 771 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maiden Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 771 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Maiden Rock-wide figureread your own land →
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