Mineral Point, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mineral Point, 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 Mineral Point 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 Mineral Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mineral Point — the short answer
Mineral Point, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 5a is Mineral Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mineral Point's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mineral Point
Each reading below is measured for Mineral Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMineral Point runs about 187 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
MeasuredMineral Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Mineral Point is in
Mineral Point sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mineral Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iowa County.
What Grows in Mineral Point
Every plant below cleared Mineral Point's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mineral Point?
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 Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Mineral Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mineral Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MINERAL POINT HEALTH SERVICESBrownfields · 700 ft
- Waynes AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DEA-MINERAL POINT LAB-2Brownfields · 900 ft
- Badger Range MineMining · 1000 ft
- Gte - Mineral PointUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RICHARD G WHITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GLENN E KINCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NELSON MUFFLER CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- THE ROOST RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DEA-MINERAL POINT LAB-1Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Homesite MineMining · 1200 ft
- MINERAL POINT QUIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mineral Point'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 Mineral Point.
Total Sites
582
within ~10 miles of Mineral Point
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mineral Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mineral Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mineral Point, Mining runs higher than the national average — 418 sites within ~10 miles of Mineral Point. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Mineral Point
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 Mineral Point average
Your land is one point inside Mineral Point
Everything above resolves to Mineral Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Mineral Point Average
Mineral Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Mineral Point
- ●One soil character for all of Mineral Point
- ●Frost dates read at Mineral Point's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mineral Point's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mineral Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mineral Point, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mineral Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mineral Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mineral Point average
How we know this about Mineral Point
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 Mineral Point’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 Mineral Point
When does frost risk typically end in Mineral Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mineral Point typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Mineral Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mineral Point typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mineral Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mineral Point sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mineral Point?
The federal record around Mineral Point runs heavier than most — 582 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (418), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Mineral Point?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mineral Point's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mineral Point'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 Mineral Point’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mineral Point's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,006 acres it covers and 582 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mineral Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mineral Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 582 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mineral Point, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mineral Point's boundary and the 2,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mineral Point's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mineral Point's 2,006 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iowa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iowa 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 Iowa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mineral Point's 2,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mineral Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,006 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Mineral Point-wide figureread your own land →
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