Navarino, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Navarino, 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 Navarino 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 Navarino — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Navarino — the short answer
Navarino, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 713 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 713 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 Navarino's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Navarino's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Navarino
Each reading below is measured for Navarino itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNavarino runs about 172 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
MeasuredNavarino 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 Navarino is in
Navarino sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Navarino's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shawano County.
What Grows in Navarino
Every plant below cleared Navarino's own zone 5a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Navarino?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Navarino
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Navarino. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NAVARINO AGRI CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Lewellen ErbUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WI DOT - RIGHT OF WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SH-25/16E/14-0231Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Jeff & Cindys On MainUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- B R RumorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- SCENIC VALLEY COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Leeman Corner Market LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- GRUNEWALD FAMILY FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- SEEHAFER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- ZAHRINGER CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- J & L BAR & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Navarino'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 Navarino.
Total Sites
111
within ~10 miles of Navarino
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Navarino
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Navarino
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Navarino, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Navarino — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (79 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Navarino
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 Navarino average
Your land is one point inside Navarino
Everything above resolves to Navarino as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 713 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 Navarino Average
Navarino Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Navarino
- ●One soil character for all of Navarino
- ●Frost dates read at Navarino's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Navarino's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Navarino
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Navarino, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Navarino averages can't show:
We read public map data around Navarino — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Navarino average
How we know this about Navarino
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 Navarino’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 Navarino
When does frost risk typically end in Navarino?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Navarino typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Navarino?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Navarino typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Navarino?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Navarino sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 2, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Navarino?
The federal record around Navarino shows 111 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), 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 Navarino?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Navarino's scale — its 5a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Navarino'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 Navarino’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Navarino's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 713 acres it covers and 111 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Navarino's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Navarino's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 16 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 111 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Navarino, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Navarino's boundary and the 713 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Navarino'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 Navarino's 713 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shawano County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shawano 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 Shawano County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Navarino's 713 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Navarino you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 713 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 Navarino-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinNavarino sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides