New Berlin, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in New Berlin, 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 New Berlin 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 New Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Berlin — the short answer
New Berlin, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 23K 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 New Berlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Berlin's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Berlin
Each reading below is measured for New Berlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Berlin runs about 197 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
MeasuredNew Berlin 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 New Berlin is in
New Berlin sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Berlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waukesha County.
What Grows in New Berlin
Every plant below cleared New Berlin's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Berlin?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 New Berlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Berlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ED WISNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- POPLAR CREEK GARDENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MEYER LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NEW BERLIN CENTER ELEM SCHOOLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- U.S. HEALTHWORKSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- NEW BERLIN CTY HWY DEPTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- City Of New BerlinUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NATIONAL AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MSM MOTORCARS LLC DBA NATIONAL AUTO BODY SALES & SERVICEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NEW BERLIN RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WK-06/20E/22-0697Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF NEW BERLIN WATER & GARAGE UTILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Berlin'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 New Berlin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Berlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Berlin
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 New Berlin
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 New Berlin average
Your land is one point inside New Berlin
Everything above resolves to New Berlin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 New Berlin Average
New Berlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New Berlin
- ●One soil character for all of New Berlin
- ●Frost dates read at New Berlin's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Berlin's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Berlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Berlin, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Berlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Berlin average
How we know this about New Berlin
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 New Berlin’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 New Berlin
When does frost risk typically end in New Berlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Berlin typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in New Berlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Berlin typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Berlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Berlin sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 10, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Berlin?
The federal record around New Berlin runs heavier than most — 3,841 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,854), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 New Berlin?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Berlin's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Berlin'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 New Berlin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Berlin's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,313 acres it covers and 3,841 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Berlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Berlin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 24 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,841 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Berlin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Berlin's boundary and the 23,313 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Berlin'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 New Berlin's 23,313 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 New Berlin's 23,313 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Berlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,313 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 New Berlin-wide figureread your own land →