Milltown, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Milltown, 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 Milltown 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 Milltown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milltown — the short answer
Milltown, 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 Milltown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milltown's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milltown
Each reading below is measured for Milltown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilltown 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
MeasuredMilltown 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 Milltown is in
Milltown sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milltown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Milltown
Every plant below cleared Milltown'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 Milltown?
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 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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Milltown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milltown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PK-35/17W/17-0038Nitrate · 2300 ft
- DON LEE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RAPID REPAIRBrownfields · 2300 ft
- PK-35/17W/17-0037Nitrate · 2300 ft
- AMERY EQUITY CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- STEVES ALIGNMENT CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARTINI MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILLTOWN GAS CO INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- STEVES ALIGNMENT & SERVBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Milltown SawmillUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AUTO STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STUS SPORT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milltown'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 Milltown.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Milltown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milltown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milltown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milltown, Mining runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Milltown. 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 Milltown
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 Milltown average
Your land is one point inside Milltown
Everything above resolves to Milltown 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 Milltown Average
Milltown Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Milltown
- ●One soil character for all of Milltown
- ●Frost dates read at Milltown's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milltown's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milltown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milltown, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milltown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milltown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milltown average
How we know this about Milltown
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 Milltown’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 Milltown
When does frost risk typically end in Milltown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milltown 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 Milltown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milltown 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 Milltown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milltown 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 Milltown?
The federal record around Milltown is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Nitrate 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 Milltown?
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 Milltown's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milltown'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 Milltown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Milltown's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,159 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milltown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milltown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 18 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milltown, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milltown's boundary and the 1,159 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 Milltown'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 Milltown's 1,159 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 Milltown's 1,159 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milltown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,159 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Milltown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinMilltown sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides