Muskego, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Muskego, 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 Muskego 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 Muskego — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Muskego — the short answer
Muskego, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 20K 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 5b is Muskego's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Muskego's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Muskego
Each reading below is measured for Muskego itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMuskego runs about 181 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
MeasuredMuskego sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Muskego is in
Muskego sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Muskego's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waukesha County.
What Grows in Muskego
Every plant below cleared Muskego's own zone 5b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Muskego?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Muskego
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Muskego. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MUSKEGO WATER UTILITYPFAS · 25 ft
- MUSKEGO HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SCHOOL DISTRICT OF MUSKEGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 4FRONT ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BAUER SIGNBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GREAT LAKES DART MFR INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- QMC INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- DEADMAN CUSTOMSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- ENDPOINT WASTE SOLUTIONS CORPBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- ALLSOURCE ENVIRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Mikes X-PressUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Loomis Petro MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Muskego'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 Muskego.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Muskego
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Muskego
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Muskego
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 Muskego average
Your land is one point inside Muskego
Everything above resolves to Muskego as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Muskego Average
Muskego Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Muskego
- ●One soil character for all of Muskego
- ●Frost dates read at Muskego's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Muskego's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Muskego
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Muskego, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Muskego averages can't show:
We read public map data around Muskego — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Muskego average
How we know this about Muskego
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 Muskego’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 Muskego
When does frost risk typically end in Muskego?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Muskego typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Muskego?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Muskego typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Muskego?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Muskego sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 5, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Muskego?
The federal record around Muskego is a meaningful one — 1,373 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (646), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Muskego?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Muskego's scale — its 5b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Muskego'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 Muskego’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Muskego's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,225 acres it covers and 1,373 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Muskego's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Muskego's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 19 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,373 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Muskego, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Muskego's boundary and the 20,225 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Muskego'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 Muskego's 20,225 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Waukesha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Waukesha 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 Waukesha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Muskego's 20,225 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Muskego you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,225 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Muskego-wide figureread your own land →