Melvina, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Melvina, 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 Melvina 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 Melvina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Melvina — the short answer
Melvina, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 311 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 311 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 Melvina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Melvina's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Melvina
Each reading below is measured for Melvina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMelvina runs about 180 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
MeasuredMelvina 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 Melvina is in
Melvina sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Melvina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Melvina
Every plant below cleared Melvina's own zone 4b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Melvina?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Melvina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Melvina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NOTTESTAD FILLING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Melvina MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BUDS PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Town Of WellsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- MO-15/04W/15-0089Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- Monroe County Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MDS DAIRY INCCAFO · 3.9 mi
- CASHTON AMOCO BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Hansens IGA IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- OLSON STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- OLSONS STANDARD SERVICE STABrownfields · 4.1 mi
- CLEMENTS CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Melvina'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 Melvina.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Melvina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Melvina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Melvina, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 157 sites within ~10 miles of Melvina. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Melvina
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 Melvina average
Your land is one point inside Melvina
Everything above resolves to Melvina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 311 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 Melvina Average
Melvina Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Melvina
- ●One soil character for all of Melvina
- ●Frost dates read at Melvina's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Melvina's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Melvina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Melvina, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Melvina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Melvina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Melvina average
How we know this about Melvina
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 Melvina’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 Melvina
When does frost risk typically end in Melvina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Melvina typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Melvina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Melvina typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Melvina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Melvina sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 3, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Melvina?
The federal record around Melvina is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 I protect my plants from frost in Melvina?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Melvina's scale — its 4b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Melvina'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 Melvina’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Melvina's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 311 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Melvina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Melvina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 17 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Melvina, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Melvina's boundary and the 311 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Melvina's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Melvina's 311 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Melvina's 311 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Melvina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 311 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Melvina-wide figureread your own land →
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