Mellen, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Mellen, 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 Mellen 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 Mellen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mellen — the short answer
Mellen, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 4a is Mellen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mellen's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mellen
Each reading below is measured for Mellen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMellen runs about 148 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
MeasuredMellen sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Mellen is in
Mellen sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Mellen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ashland County.
What Grows in Mellen
Every plant below cleared Mellen's own zone 4a and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mellen?
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 Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Mellen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mellen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Express MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Dale R GrageUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- William StrickerUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Midland ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Northland FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MELLEN MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JONES FORDBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JONES FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NORTH COUNTRY LBR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NCL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TOMS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Dons Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mellen'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 Mellen.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Mellen
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mellen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mellen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mellen, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mellen — Mining (3 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mellen
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 Mellen average
Your land is one point inside Mellen
Everything above resolves to Mellen 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 city 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 Mellen Average
Mellen Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Mellen
- ●One soil character for all of Mellen
- ●Frost dates read at Mellen's scale: May 11 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mellen's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mellen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mellen, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mellen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mellen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mellen average
How we know this about Mellen
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mellen’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Mellen
When does frost risk typically end in Mellen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mellen typically lands around May 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Mellen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mellen typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mellen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mellen sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 22, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mellen?
The federal record around Mellen shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Mellen?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mellen 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mellen's scale — its 4a band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mellen'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 Mellen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mellen's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,205 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mellen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mellen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 6 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mellen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mellen's boundary and the 1,205 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mellen'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 Mellen's 1,205 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ashland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ashland 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 Ashland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mellen's 1,205 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mellen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,205 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 Mellen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinMellen sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides