Norwalk, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Norwalk, 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 Norwalk 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 Norwalk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Norwalk — the short answer
Norwalk, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 659 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 659 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 Norwalk's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Norwalk's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Norwalk
Each reading below is measured for Norwalk itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorwalk runs about 176 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
MeasuredNorwalk 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 Norwalk is in
Norwalk sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Norwalk's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Norwalk
Every plant below cleared Norwalk's own zone 4b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Norwalk?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Norwalk
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Norwalk. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORWALK GRADE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MADDEN PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DEGENHARDT IMPLEMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FLOCKS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Town Of SheldonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- B & B AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HARVEY MENNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RADIO TOWER RIDGEVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NORWALK MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TOWN OF RIDGEVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BERNARD KOTTEN RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NORWALK AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Norwalk'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 Norwalk.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Norwalk
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Norwalk
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Norwalk
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Norwalk, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 75 sites within ~10 miles of Norwalk. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Norwalk
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 Norwalk average
Your land is one point inside Norwalk
Everything above resolves to Norwalk as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 659 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 Norwalk Average
Norwalk Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Norwalk
- ●One soil character for all of Norwalk
- ●Frost dates read at Norwalk's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Norwalk's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Norwalk
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Norwalk, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Norwalk averages can't show:
We read public map data around Norwalk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Norwalk average
How we know this about Norwalk
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 Norwalk’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 Norwalk
When does frost risk typically end in Norwalk?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Norwalk typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Norwalk?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Norwalk typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Norwalk?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Norwalk sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 2, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Norwalk?
The federal record around Norwalk shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), 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 Norwalk?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Norwalk's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Norwalk'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 Norwalk’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Norwalk's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 659 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Norwalk's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Norwalk's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 16 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Norwalk, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Norwalk's boundary and the 659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Norwalk's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Norwalk's 659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Norwalk's 659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Norwalk you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 659 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 Norwalk-wide figureread your own land →
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