Pepin, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pepin, 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 Pepin 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 Pepin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pepin — the short answer
Pepin, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 463 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 463 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 Pepin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pepin's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pepin
Each reading below is measured for Pepin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPepin runs about 182 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
MeasuredPepin 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 Pepin is in
Pepin sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pepin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pepin County.
What Grows in Pepin
Every plant below cleared Pepin's own zone 4b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pepin?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Pepin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pepin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEPIN AREA SCHOOLSBrownfields · 400 ft
- RIVER ROAD 66Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PEPIN PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PEPIN COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THIS OLD BIKEBrownfields · 700 ft
- NORTHERN WISCONSIN MFG COBrownfields · 750 ft
- DANS 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LAURA INGALLS WILDER MEM SOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Northern Wisconsin Mfg CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DURAND CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PEPIN AREA SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TOWN OF PEPINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pepin'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 Pepin.
Total Sites
221
within ~10 miles of Pepin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pepin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pepin
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pepin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pepin — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (68 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 Pepin
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 Pepin average
Your land is one point inside Pepin
Everything above resolves to Pepin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 463 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 Pepin Average
Pepin Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pepin
- ●One soil character for all of Pepin
- ●Frost dates read at Pepin's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pepin's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pepin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pepin, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pepin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pepin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pepin average
How we know this about Pepin
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 Pepin’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 Pepin
When does frost risk typically end in Pepin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pepin typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Pepin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pepin typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pepin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pepin sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pepin?
The federal record around Pepin is a meaningful one — 221 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Brownfields 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 Pepin?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pepin's scale — its 4b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pepin'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 Pepin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pepin's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 463 acres it covers and 221 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pepin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pepin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 221 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pepin, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pepin's boundary and the 463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pepin's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pepin's 463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pepin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pepin 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 Pepin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pepin's 463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pepin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Pepin-wide figureread your own land →
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