Sharon, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sharon, 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 Sharon 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 Sharon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sharon — the short answer
Sharon, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Sharon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sharon's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sharon
Each reading below is measured for Sharon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSharon runs about 189 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
MeasuredSharon sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Sharon is in
Sharon sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sharon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Walworth County.
What Grows in Sharon
Every plant below cleared Sharon's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sharon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Sharon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sharon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOYCE POPERAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DARRELL E HAYES BULK MILK HAULINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Sharon Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MICHAEL A ROHLEDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SHARON TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SHARON TELEPHONE COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SHARON FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WW-01/15E/33-0548Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WW-01/15E/33-0035Nitrate · 1700 ft
- VILLAGE OF SHARONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WW-01/15E/33-0584Nitrate · 2000 ft
- JIMMY'S GAS-N-GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sharon'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 Sharon.
Total Sites
341
within ~10 miles of Sharon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sharon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sharon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sharon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sharon — PFAS (5 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Sharon
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 Sharon average
Your land is one point inside Sharon
Everything above resolves to Sharon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sharon Average
Sharon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sharon
- ●One soil character for all of Sharon
- ●Frost dates read at Sharon's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sharon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sharon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sharon, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sharon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sharon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sharon average
How we know this about Sharon
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 Sharon’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 Sharon
When does frost risk typically end in Sharon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sharon typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Sharon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sharon typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sharon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sharon sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 8, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sharon?
The federal record around Sharon is a meaningful one — 341 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (185), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sharon?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sharon's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sharon'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 Sharon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sharon's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,107 acres it covers and 341 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sharon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sharon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 22 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 341 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sharon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sharon's boundary and the 1,107 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sharon's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sharon's 1,107 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Walworth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Walworth 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 Walworth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sharon's 1,107 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sharon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,107 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 Sharon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinSharon sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides