Melrose, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Melrose, 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 Melrose 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 Melrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melrose — the short answer
Melrose, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 513 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 513 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 Melrose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melrose's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melrose
Each reading below is measured for Melrose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelrose 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
MeasuredMelrose 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 Melrose is in
Melrose sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melrose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Melrose
Every plant below cleared Melrose'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 Melrose?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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. 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 Melrose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melrose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAND FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- NORDSTROM CONST & LUMBER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- TENNERS MELROSE MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- MELROSE OIL & FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MELROSE ALLIANCE CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- THE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MELROSE FARM SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MELROSE BUS DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Melrose Express MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PFAFF PRAIRIE FARMSCAFO · 0.7 mi
- GENE L STETZERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- OHEARN AUTO COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melrose'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 Melrose.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Melrose
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melrose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melrose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melrose, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Melrose. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Melrose
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 Melrose average
Your land is one point inside Melrose
Everything above resolves to Melrose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 513 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 Melrose Average
Melrose Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Melrose
- ●One soil character for all of Melrose
- ●Frost dates read at Melrose's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melrose's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melrose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melrose, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melrose averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melrose average
How we know this about Melrose
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 Melrose’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 Melrose
When does frost risk typically end in Melrose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melrose typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Melrose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melrose 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 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melrose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melrose sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 2, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melrose?
The federal record around Melrose shows 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Melrose?
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 Melrose's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melrose'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 Melrose’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Melrose's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 513 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melrose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melrose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 16 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melrose, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melrose's boundary and the 513 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 Melrose's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Melrose's 513 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melrose's 513 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melrose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 513 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 Melrose-wide figureread your own land →
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