Owen, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Owen, 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 Owen 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 Owen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Owen — the short answer
Owen, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 4b is Owen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Owen's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Owen
Each reading below is measured for Owen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOwen runs about 161 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
MeasuredOwen 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 Owen is in
Owen sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Owen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Owen
Every plant below cleared Owen's own zone 4b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Owen?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Owen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Owen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KNACK DRAY LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CENEX SOIL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RIVER COUNTRY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- DELS EQUIPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CITY OF OWENUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DELS SURGE & EQUIP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DUANE ZAGER PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- O & W Sports & LiquorUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #15996Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Creekside Convenience LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PAITEL CITGO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TOWN & COUNTRY SERVICEBrownfields · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Owen'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 Owen.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Owen
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Owen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Owen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Owen, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Owen. 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 Owen
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 Owen average
Your land is one point inside Owen
Everything above resolves to Owen 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 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 Owen Average
Owen Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Owen
- ●One soil character for all of Owen
- ●Frost dates read at Owen's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Owen's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Owen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Owen, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Owen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Owen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Owen average
How we know this about Owen
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 Owen’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 Owen
When does frost risk typically end in Owen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Owen typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Owen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Owen typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Owen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Owen sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 24, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Owen?
The federal record around Owen is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Owen?
From about Sep 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 Oct 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Owen's scale — its 4b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Owen'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 Owen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Owen's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,471 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Owen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Owen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 8 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Owen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Owen's boundary and the 1,471 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Owen's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Owen's 1,471 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Owen's 1,471 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Owen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,471 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 Owen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinOwen sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides