Sandy Hook, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sandy Hook, 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 Sandy Hook 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 Sandy Hook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sandy Hook — the short answer
Sandy Hook, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 901 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 901 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 Sandy Hook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sandy Hook's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sandy Hook
Each reading below is measured for Sandy Hook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSandy Hook runs about 207 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSandy Hook 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 Sandy Hook is in
Sandy Hook sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sandy Hook's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Sandy Hook
Every plant below cleared Sandy Hook's own zone 5a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sandy Hook?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Sandy Hook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Town Of JamestownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DONOVANS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Pes IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KUNKEL RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MARYVILLE CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS LOCK & DAM 11Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- DUBUQUE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TULLY''S DUBUQUE LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 089N03E07DDA 00087 1935Dubuque 6Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- MULGREW OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 089N03E07DBD Dubuque Eagle PointNitrate · 1.8 mi
- PUBLIC WKS WATER DIV/CITY OF DUBUQUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sandy Hook'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 Sandy Hook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sandy Hook, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sandy Hook — Mining (46 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (36 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Sandy Hook
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 Sandy Hook average
Your land is one point inside Sandy Hook
Everything above resolves to Sandy Hook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 901 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 Sandy Hook Average
Sandy Hook Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Sandy Hook
- ●One soil character for all of Sandy Hook
- ●Frost dates read at Sandy Hook's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sandy Hook's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sandy Hook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sandy Hook, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sandy Hook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sandy Hook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sandy Hook average
How we know this about Sandy Hook
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 Sandy Hook’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 Sandy Hook
When does frost risk typically end in Sandy Hook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sandy Hook typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Sandy Hook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sandy Hook typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sandy Hook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sandy Hook sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 16, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sandy Hook?
The federal record around Sandy Hook runs heavier than most — 568 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (291), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sandy Hook?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sandy Hook's scale — its 5a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sandy Hook'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 Sandy Hook’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sandy Hook's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 901 acres it covers and 568 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sandy Hook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sandy Hook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 30 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 568 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sandy Hook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sandy Hook's boundary and the 901 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sandy Hook's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sandy Hook's 901 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 Sandy Hook's 901 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sandy Hook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 901 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sandy Hook-wide figureread your own land →
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