Poplar, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Poplar, 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 Poplar 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 Poplar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Poplar — the short answer
Poplar, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Poplar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poplar's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poplar
Each reading below is measured for Poplar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPoplar runs about 157 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
MeasuredPoplar 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 Poplar is in
Poplar sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Poplar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Poplar
Every plant below cleared Poplar's own zone 4b and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poplar?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Poplar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poplar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #18451Brownfields · 600 ft
- Poplar Feed MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NORTHLAND FOODSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- POPLAR AUTO REFINISHINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TORREY'S FURNITURESuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Henry SedinUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Glen R LindahlUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Reynold EricksonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Poplar Hardware CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Middle River TavernUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Lyle FechtelkotterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VILLAGE OF POPLARUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poplar'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 Poplar.
Total Sites
143
within ~10 miles of Poplar
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poplar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poplar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poplar, Mining runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Poplar. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Poplar
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 Poplar average
Your land is one point inside Poplar
Everything above resolves to Poplar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Poplar Average
Poplar Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Poplar
- ●One soil character for all of Poplar
- ●Frost dates read at Poplar's scale: May 8 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poplar's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poplar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poplar, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poplar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poplar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poplar average
How we know this about Poplar
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 Poplar’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 Poplar
When does frost risk typically end in Poplar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poplar typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Poplar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poplar typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poplar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poplar sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 28, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poplar?
The federal record around Poplar is a meaningful one — 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Poplar?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poplar's scale — its 4b band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poplar'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 Poplar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Poplar's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,606 acres it covers and 143 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poplar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poplar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 12 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poplar, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poplar's boundary and the 7,606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Poplar'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 Poplar's 7,606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poplar's 7,606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poplar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Poplar-wide figureread your own land →