Palmyra, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Palmyra, 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 Palmyra 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 Palmyra — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palmyra — the short answer
Palmyra, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Palmyra's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palmyra's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palmyra
Each reading below is measured for Palmyra itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalmyra runs about 186 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
MeasuredPalmyra 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 Palmyra is in
Palmyra sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Palmyra's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Palmyra
Every plant below cleared Palmyra's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palmyra?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Palmyra
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palmyra. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JE-05/16E/22-0135Nitrate · 850 ft
- WILSON SPORT CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STANDARD PROCESS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- STANDARD PROCESS INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DONALD AGENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EPIC RESINSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- EPIC RESINSToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- PALMYRA EAGLE AREA SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JE-05/16E/33-0092Nitrate · 1900 ft
- JE-05/16E/22-0123Nitrate · 2000 ft
- JULIE A POWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Stover Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palmyra'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 Palmyra.
Total Sites
322
within ~10 miles of Palmyra
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palmyra
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palmyra
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palmyra, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Palmyra — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (88 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Palmyra
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 Palmyra average
Your land is one point inside Palmyra
Everything above resolves to Palmyra 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 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 Palmyra Average
Palmyra Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Palmyra
- ●One soil character for all of Palmyra
- ●Frost dates read at Palmyra's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palmyra's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palmyra
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palmyra, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palmyra averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palmyra — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palmyra average
How we know this about Palmyra
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 Palmyra’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 Palmyra
When does frost risk typically end in Palmyra?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palmyra typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Palmyra?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palmyra 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 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palmyra?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palmyra sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 7, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palmyra?
The federal record around Palmyra is a meaningful one — 322 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Palmyra?
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 Palmyra's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palmyra'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 Palmyra’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palmyra's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,466 acres it covers and 322 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palmyra's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palmyra's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 21 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 322 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palmyra, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palmyra's boundary and the 1,466 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palmyra'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 Palmyra's 1,466 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palmyra's 1,466 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palmyra you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,466 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Palmyra-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinPalmyra sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides