Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Milwaukee, 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 Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Milwaukee — the short answer
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 62K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 62K 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 6a is Milwaukee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milwaukee's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milwaukee
Each reading below is measured for Milwaukee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMilwaukee runs about 215 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMilwaukee sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Milwaukee is in
Milwaukee sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milwaukee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in Milwaukee
Every plant below cleared Milwaukee's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Milwaukee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Milwaukee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milwaukee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cecelia E EckertUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SUPERAMERICA #4077Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TEACHERS UNIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CONDEMNED BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ELROY CADEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CITY OF MILWAUKEE - RAZED LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CONDEMNED BLDG LISBONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Dave's GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- City Oil IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BOBKE PAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- North Ave Gas And FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MILWAUKEE BUILDING & FLEETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milwaukee'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 Milwaukee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milwaukee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milwaukee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milwaukee, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 377 sites within ~10 miles of Milwaukee. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Milwaukee
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 Milwaukee average
Your land is one point inside Milwaukee
Everything above resolves to Milwaukee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 62K 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 Milwaukee Average
Milwaukee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Milwaukee
- ●One soil character for all of Milwaukee
- ●Frost dates read at Milwaukee's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milwaukee's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milwaukee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milwaukee, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milwaukee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milwaukee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milwaukee average
How we know this about Milwaukee
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 Milwaukee’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 Milwaukee
When does frost risk typically end in Milwaukee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milwaukee typically lands around Apr 5, 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 Apr 26.
When is the first frost in Milwaukee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milwaukee typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milwaukee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milwaukee sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 23, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milwaukee?
The federal record around Milwaukee runs heavier than most — 6,142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,093), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Milwaukee?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milwaukee's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milwaukee'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 Milwaukee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Milwaukee's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 61,551 acres it covers and 6,142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milwaukee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Milwaukee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 6 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milwaukee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milwaukee's boundary and the 61,551 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Milwaukee's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milwaukee's 61,551 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Milwaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milwaukee's 61,551 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milwaukee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 61,551 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Milwaukee-wide figureread your own land →