Mount Hope, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Hope, 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 Mount Hope 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 Mount Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Hope — the short answer
Mount Hope, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 177 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 177 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 Mount Hope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Hope's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Hope
Each reading below is measured for Mount Hope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Hope runs about 189 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
MeasuredMount Hope 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 Mount Hope is in
Mount Hope sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Hope's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Mount Hope
Every plant below cleared Mount Hope's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Hope?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Mount Hope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Hope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEPKING TRANSFERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- KEENEY MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- JOES REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GR-06/04W/28-0050Nitrate · 1500 ft
- Loren LaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MT HOPE VILLAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- RHEA ALDERSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GR-06/05W/25-0094Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- WERLEY STORE/TAVERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- MT IDA TOWNSHIP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- FORMERLY KREYERS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- MILLIN BROS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Hope'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 Mount Hope.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Mount Hope
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Hope
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Hope
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Hope, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Hope — Nitrate (22 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (51 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Hope
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 Mount Hope average
Your land is one point inside Mount Hope
Everything above resolves to Mount Hope as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 177 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 Mount Hope Average
Mount Hope Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Mount Hope
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Hope
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Hope's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Hope's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Hope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Hope, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Hope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Hope average
How we know this about Mount Hope
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 Mount Hope’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 Mount Hope
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Hope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Hope typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Mount Hope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Hope typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Hope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Hope sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 7, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Hope?
The federal record around Mount Hope shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Mount Hope?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Hope's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Hope'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 Mount Hope’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Hope's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 177 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Hope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Hope's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 21 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Hope, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Hope's boundary and the 177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Hope's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Hope's 177 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Hope's 177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Hope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mount Hope-wide figureread your own land →
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