Packwaukee, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Packwaukee, 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 Packwaukee 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 Packwaukee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Packwaukee — the short answer
Packwaukee, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 307 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 307 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 5a is Packwaukee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Packwaukee's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Packwaukee
Each reading below is measured for Packwaukee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPackwaukee runs about 173 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
MeasuredPackwaukee sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Packwaukee is in
Packwaukee sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Packwaukee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marquette County.
What Grows in Packwaukee
Every plant below cleared Packwaukee's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Packwaukee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Packwaukee
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Packwaukee, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Packwaukee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Packwaukee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOORES RESORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PACKWAUKEE BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MCDOWELL FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GEORGE G KOSCIELNIAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ED KRIVANEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- V & V MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PACKWAUKEE POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MAPLE GROVE AUTO CTRBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Oxford Travel Plaza IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PETERSON PRODUCE INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- TIMME INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- EDWARD PARROTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Packwaukee'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 Packwaukee.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Packwaukee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Packwaukee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Packwaukee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Packwaukee, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 125 sites within ~10 miles of Packwaukee. 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 Packwaukee
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 Packwaukee average
Your land is one point inside Packwaukee
Everything above resolves to Packwaukee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 307 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 Packwaukee Average
Packwaukee Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Packwaukee
- ●One soil character for all of Packwaukee
- ●Frost dates read at Packwaukee's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Packwaukee's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Packwaukee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Packwaukee, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Packwaukee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Packwaukee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Packwaukee average
How we know this about Packwaukee
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 Packwaukee’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 Packwaukee
When does frost risk typically end in Packwaukee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Packwaukee typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Packwaukee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Packwaukee typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Packwaukee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Packwaukee sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 30, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Packwaukee?
The federal record around Packwaukee is a meaningful one — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), 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 Packwaukee?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Packwaukee's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Packwaukee'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 Packwaukee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Packwaukee's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 307 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Packwaukee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Packwaukee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 14 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Packwaukee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Packwaukee's boundary and the 307 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Packwaukee's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Packwaukeelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Packwaukee's 307 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marquette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marquette 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 Marquette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Packwaukee's 307 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Packwaukee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 307 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 Packwaukee-wide figureread your own land →