Neillsville, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Neillsville, 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 Neillsville 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 Neillsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Neillsville — the short answer
Neillsville, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- 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 4b is Neillsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Neillsville's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Neillsville
Each reading below is measured for Neillsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNeillsville runs about 165 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
MeasuredNeillsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Neillsville is in
Neillsville sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Neillsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Neillsville
Every plant below cleared Neillsville's own zone 4b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Neillsville?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Neillsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Neillsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHUSTER CAMPMAN ABST & TITLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FRANK SVETLIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NSP NEILLSVILLE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NSPW NEILLSVILLE OFFICEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ARDEN HINKELMANNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- STRANGFELDS BODY & PAINTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- NEILLSVILLE FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- L & M PARTNERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NEILLSVILLE POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KWIK TRIP #313Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MODEL CLEANERSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- URBAN SALES & SERVICEBrownfields · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Neillsville'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 Neillsville.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Neillsville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Neillsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Neillsville
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 Neillsville
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 Neillsville average
Your land is one point inside Neillsville
Everything above resolves to Neillsville 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 Neillsville Average
Neillsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Neillsville
- ●One soil character for all of Neillsville
- ●Frost dates read at Neillsville's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Neillsville's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Neillsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Neillsville, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Neillsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Neillsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Neillsville average
How we know this about Neillsville
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 Neillsville’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 Neillsville
When does frost risk typically end in Neillsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Neillsville typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Neillsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Neillsville typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Neillsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Neillsville sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 26, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Neillsville?
The federal record around Neillsville shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), 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 Neillsville?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Neillsville's scale — its 4b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Neillsville'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 Neillsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Neillsville's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,757 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Neillsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Neillsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 10 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Neillsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Neillsville's boundary and the 1,757 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Neillsville'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 Neillsville's 1,757 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Neillsville's 1,757 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Neillsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,757 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 Neillsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinNeillsville sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.