Prairie Farm, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Prairie Farm, 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 Prairie Farm 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 Prairie Farm — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Prairie Farm — the short answer
Prairie Farm, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 616 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 616 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 Prairie Farm's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prairie Farm's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prairie Farm
Each reading below is measured for Prairie Farm itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrairie Farm runs about 166 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
MeasuredPrairie Farm 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 Prairie Farm is in
Prairie Farm sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prairie Farm's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barron County.
What Grows in Prairie Farm
Every plant below cleared Prairie Farm's own zone 4b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prairie Farm?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Prairie Farm
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prairie Farm. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Borgen & LeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- River Country CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Thompson Sales & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BR-32/13W/21-0026Nitrate · 1100 ft
- PRAIRIE FARM FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DICKSON & BORGENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALLACE KAHLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EARLS 66 SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Prairie Farm SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Amundson ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BRADLEY MILLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORDBY & SONS PUMP & HTGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prairie Farm'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 Prairie Farm.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of Prairie Farm
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prairie Farm
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prairie Farm
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prairie Farm, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Prairie Farm. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Prairie Farm
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 Prairie Farm average
Your land is one point inside Prairie Farm
Everything above resolves to Prairie Farm as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 616 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 Prairie Farm Average
Prairie Farm Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Prairie Farm
- ●One soil character for all of Prairie Farm
- ●Frost dates read at Prairie Farm's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prairie Farm's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prairie Farm
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prairie Farm, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prairie Farm averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prairie Farm — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prairie Farm average
How we know this about Prairie Farm
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 Prairie Farm’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 Prairie Farm
When does frost risk typically end in Prairie Farm?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prairie Farm typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Prairie Farm?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prairie Farm typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prairie Farm?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prairie Farm sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 26, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prairie Farm?
The federal record around Prairie Farm shows 113 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Prairie Farm?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prairie Farm's scale — its 4b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prairie Farm'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 Prairie Farm’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prairie Farm's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 616 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prairie Farm's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prairie Farm's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 10 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prairie Farm, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prairie Farm's boundary and the 616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prairie Farm's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prairie Farm's 616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barron 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 Barron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prairie Farm's 616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prairie Farm you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 616 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Prairie Farm-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinPrairie Farm sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.