Reserve, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Reserve, 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 Reserve 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 Reserve — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Reserve — the short answer
Reserve, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 34K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 34K 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 Reserve's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reserve's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reserve
Each reading below is measured for Reserve itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredReserve runs about 145 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredReserve 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 Reserve is in
Reserve sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Reserve's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sawyer County.
What Grows in Reserve
Every plant below cleared Reserve's own zone 4a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reserve?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Reserve
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reserve. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUEBERRY HILL RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- NORWOOD STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SAWYER COUNTY HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- ARGETSINGERS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SHADY NOOK RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- ARGETSINGERS IGABrownfields · 3.4 mi
- ACKLEYS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- EARLS MARINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SHERLOCK PROPERTY DEMOBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- S & S AMOCOBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- ST FRANCIS SOLANUS INDIAN MISSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- BEECHMOOR LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reserve'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 Reserve.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Reserve
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reserve
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reserve
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reserve, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Reserve. 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 Reserve
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 Reserve average
Your land is one point inside Reserve
Everything above resolves to Reserve as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 34K 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 Reserve Average
Reserve Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Reserve
- ●One soil character for all of Reserve
- ●Frost dates read at Reserve's scale: May 10 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reserve's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reserve
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reserve, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reserve averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reserve — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reserve average
How we know this about Reserve
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 Reserve’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 Reserve
When does frost risk typically end in Reserve?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reserve typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Reserve?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reserve typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reserve?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reserve sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 18, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reserve?
The federal record around Reserve is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in Reserve?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Reserve rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Reserve's scale — its 4a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reserve'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 Reserve’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Reserve's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 33,875 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reserve's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reserve's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 2 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reserve, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reserve's boundary and the 33,875 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Reserve'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 Reserve's 33,875 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sawyer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sawyer 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 Sawyer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reserve's 33,875 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reserve you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 33,875 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Reserve-wide figureread your own land →
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