North Prairie, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Prairie, 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 Prairie 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 Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Prairie — the short answer
North Prairie, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is North Prairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Prairie's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Prairie
Each reading below is measured for North Prairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Prairie runs about 192 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
MeasuredNorth Prairie 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 North Prairie is in
North Prairie sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Prairie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Waukesha County.
What Grows in North Prairie
Every plant below cleared North Prairie's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Prairie?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 North Prairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Prairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WK-06/18E/32-0641Nitrate · 1400 ft
- D & D PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WAUKESHA COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GAYS TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SORENSEN CUSTOM SVC CORPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- North West Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JACOBUS PETROLEUM PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ZERO ZONE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- JACOBUS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Jak PetroUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Ollie Fullers GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MDJ TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Prairie'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 Prairie.
Total Sites
777
within ~10 miles of North Prairie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Prairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Prairie
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 North Prairie
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 Prairie average
Your land is one point inside North Prairie
Everything above resolves to North Prairie 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 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 Prairie Average
North Prairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across North Prairie
- ●One soil character for all of North Prairie
- ●Frost dates read at North Prairie's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Prairie's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Prairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Prairie, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Prairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Prairie average
How we know this about North Prairie
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 Prairie’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 Prairie
When does frost risk typically end in North Prairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Prairie typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in North Prairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Prairie typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Prairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Prairie sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 7, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Prairie?
The federal record around North Prairie is a meaningful one — 777 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (364), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Prairie?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Prairie's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Prairie'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 Prairie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Prairie's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,761 acres it covers and 777 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Prairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Prairie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 21 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 777 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Prairie, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Prairie's boundary and the 1,761 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Prairie'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 North Prairie's 1,761 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 North Prairie's 1,761 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Prairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,761 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Prairie-wide figureread your own land →