Oak Creek, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Oak Creek, 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 Oak Creek 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 Oak Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oak Creek — the short answer
Oak Creek, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Oak Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oak Creek's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oak Creek
Each reading below is measured for Oak Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOak Creek runs about 212 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
MeasuredOak Creek 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 Oak Creek is in
Oak Creek sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oak Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in Oak Creek
Every plant below cleared Oak Creek's own zone 6a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oak Creek?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Oak Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oak Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OAK CREEK WATERWORKSPFAS · 0 ft
- Suburban Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MEIJER STORE #283Brownfields · 2000 ft
- PETSMART #2472Brownfields · 2000 ft
- Unocal 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DEROSSO LANDFILL COINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- UNION PACIFIC TRAIN DERAILMENT/ACID SPILLSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Oak Creek High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #17043Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- TARGET STORE T1925Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- AUTO ZONE #1987Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oak Creek'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 Oak Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oak Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oak Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oak Creek, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 155 sites within ~10 miles of Oak Creek. 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 Oak Creek
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 Oak Creek average
Your land is one point inside Oak Creek
Everything above resolves to Oak Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Oak Creek Average
Oak Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Oak Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Oak Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Oak Creek's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oak Creek's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oak Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oak Creek, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oak Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oak Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oak Creek average
How we know this about Oak Creek
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 Oak Creek’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 Oak Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Oak Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Creek typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Oak Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oak Creek typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oak Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oak Creek sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 22, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oak Creek?
The federal record around Oak Creek is a meaningful one — 2,238 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,135), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Oak Creek?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oak Creek's scale — its 6a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oak Creek'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 Oak Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Oak Creek's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,206 acres it covers and 2,238 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oak Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oak Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 5 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,238 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oak Creek, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oak Creek's boundary and the 18,206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oak Creek'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 Oak Creek's 18,206 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Milwaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oak Creek's 18,206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oak Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,206 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Oak Creek-wide figureread your own land →