Park Falls, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Park Falls, 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 Park Falls 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 Park Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Park Falls — the short answer
Park Falls, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 4a is Park Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Park Falls's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Park Falls
Each reading below is measured for Park Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPark Falls runs about 152 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
MeasuredPark Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Park Falls is in
Park Falls sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Park Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Price County.
What Grows in Park Falls
Every plant below cleared Park Falls's own zone 4a and its 152-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Park Falls?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Park Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Park Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KAMMS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Flambeau River Papers LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FLAMBEAU PAPER CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PARK FALLS INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- PARK FALLS INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT, LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- CITY OF PARK FALLS WASTE WATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SAUNDERSWOOD SPECIALTIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PARK MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Park MallUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- THE LAKES COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 1300 ft
- JOHNSONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MIDAMERICA BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Park Falls'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 Park Falls.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Park Falls
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Park Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Park Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Park Falls, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 139 sites within ~10 miles of Park Falls. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Park Falls
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 Park Falls average
Your land is one point inside Park Falls
Everything above resolves to Park Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Park Falls Average
Park Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Park Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Park Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Park Falls's scale: May 7 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Park Falls's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Park Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Park Falls, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Park Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Park Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Park Falls average
How we know this about Park Falls
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 Park Falls’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 Park Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Park Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Park Falls typically lands around May 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 May 28.
When is the first frost in Park Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Park Falls typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 152 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Park Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Park Falls sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 22, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Park Falls?
The federal record around Park Falls shows 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Park Falls?
From about Sep 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 Oct 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Park Falls's scale — its 4a band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Park Falls'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 Park Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Park Falls's own scale — its own ~152-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,410 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Park Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Park Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 6 and the ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Park Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Park Falls's boundary and the 2,410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Park Falls's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Park Falls's 2,410 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Price County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Price 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 Price County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Park Falls's 2,410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Park Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,410 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Park Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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