New Glarus, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 New Glarus, 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 Glarus 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 Glarus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Glarus — the short answer
New Glarus, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 New Glarus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Glarus's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Glarus
Each reading below is measured for New Glarus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Glarus runs about 182 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 Glarus 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 New Glarus is in
New Glarus sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Glarus's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Green County is mostly Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in New Glarus
Every plant below cleared New Glarus's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Glarus?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Glarus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Glarus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW GLARUS TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CHRISTMAS HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RAINBOW COLLECTION BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- KLASSY MILLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- WRIMLIC AG LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BLANCHARDVILLE COOP OIL ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ZGRAGGEN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- New Glarus Bp MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NEW GLARUS SKELLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ART ZWIEFELUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- New Glarus Foods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Caseys General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Glarus'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 Glarus.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of New Glarus
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Glarus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Glarus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Glarus, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of New Glarus. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in New Glarus
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 Glarus average
Your land is one point inside New Glarus
Everything above resolves to New Glarus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 New Glarus Average
New Glarus Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across New Glarus
- ●One soil character for all of New Glarus
- ●Frost dates read at New Glarus's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Glarus's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Glarus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Glarus, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Glarus averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Glarus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Glarus average
How we know this about New Glarus
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 New Glarus’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 New Glarus
When does frost risk typically end in New Glarus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Glarus typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in New Glarus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Glarus typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Glarus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Glarus sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 3, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Glarus?
The federal record around New Glarus shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 New Glarus?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Glarus's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Glarus'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 Glarus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Glarus's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,155 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Glarus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Glarus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Glarus, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Glarus's boundary and the 1,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- New Glarus sits in the Driftless Area — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Glarus's 1,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Green County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Green 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 Green County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Glarus's 1,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Glarus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 New Glarus-wide figureread your own land →
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