North Bay, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in North Bay, 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 North Bay 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 North Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Bay — the short answer
North Bay, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 67 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 67 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 6a is North Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Bay's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Bay
Each reading below is measured for North Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Bay runs about 215 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNorth Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 North Bay is in
North Bay sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Bay's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Racine County is mostly Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Bay
Every plant below cleared North Bay's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Bay?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near North Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXPRESS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SCHULTZ AUTOMOTIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- S C Johnson & Son Inc - Council HouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Super Wind Point MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 2100 N Main Street LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DAVE'S PIZZERIA PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Three Mile CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- THE PRAIRIE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FIRE DEPT - STATION 8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Payne And Dolan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VULCAN MATERIALS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- VULCAN MATERIALS COMPANY RACINE #383Brownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Bay'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 North Bay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Bay, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of North Bay. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in North Bay
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 North Bay average
Your land is one point inside North Bay
Everything above resolves to North Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 67 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 North Bay Average
North Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North Bay
- ●One soil character for all of North Bay
- ●Frost dates read at North Bay's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Bay's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Bay, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Bay average
How we know this about North Bay
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 North Bay’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 North Bay
When does frost risk typically end in North Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Bay typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in North Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Bay typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Bay sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 24, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Bay?
The federal record around North Bay is a meaningful one — 991 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (542), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles 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 North Bay?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Bay's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Bay'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 North Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Bay's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 67 acres it covers and 991 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 7 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 991 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Bay, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Bay's boundary and the 67 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Bay sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Bay's 67 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Racine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Racine 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 Racine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Bay's 67 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 67 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 North Bay-wide figureread your own land →