Patch Grove, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Patch Grove, 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 Patch Grove 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 Patch Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Patch Grove — the short answer
Patch Grove, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 243 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 243 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 Patch Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Patch Grove's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Patch Grove
Each reading below is measured for Patch Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPatch Grove runs about 190 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
MeasuredPatch Grove 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 Patch Grove is in
Patch Grove sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Patch Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Patch Grove
Every plant below cleared Patch Grove's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Patch Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Patch Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Patch Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Patch Grove TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GR-05/05W/04-0033Nitrate · 850 ft
- New Horizons Supply CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MINK PLUMBING HEATING & ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MILLIN BROS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WEST GRANT SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BLOOMINGTON COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GR-06/05W/25-0094Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- Warco Transportation IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- SIRE T AUTOBODYBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- WYALUSING TOWN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Bloomington Stop N Go LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Patch Grove'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 Patch Grove.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Patch Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Patch Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Patch Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Patch Grove, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of Patch Grove. 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 Patch Grove
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 Patch Grove average
Your land is one point inside Patch Grove
Everything above resolves to Patch Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 243 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 Patch Grove Average
Patch Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Patch Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Patch Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Patch Grove's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Patch Grove's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Patch Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Patch Grove, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Patch Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Patch Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Patch Grove average
How we know this about Patch Grove
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 Patch Grove’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 Patch Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Patch Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Patch Grove typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Patch Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Patch Grove 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Patch Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Patch Grove sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Patch Grove?
The federal record around Patch Grove shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Patch Grove?
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 Patch Grove's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Patch Grove'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 Patch Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Patch Grove's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 243 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Patch Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Patch Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Patch Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Patch Grove's boundary and the 243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Patch Grove's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Patch Grove's 243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Patch Grove's 243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Patch Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Patch Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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