Shawano, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Shawano, 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 Shawano 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 Shawano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shawano — the short answer
Shawano, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Shawano's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shawano's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shawano
Each reading below is measured for Shawano itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShawano runs about 169 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
MeasuredShawano 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 Shawano is in
Shawano sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shawano's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shawano County.
What Grows in Shawano
Every plant below cleared Shawano's own zone 5a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shawano?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Shawano
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shawano. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E G HINTZ & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SHAWANO TERMINAL WHSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CHOICE BEER SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- M W AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- EDWARDS DISTRIBUTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Reinhart Food Service LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KMART #3769Brownfields · 1500 ft
- WESTERFELD OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Midwest OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS #703252Brownfields · 1800 ft
- Kwik Trip #620Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- OBSESSION POWERBOATS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shawano'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 Shawano.
Total Sites
386
within ~10 miles of Shawano
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shawano
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shawano
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Shawano
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 Shawano average
Your land is one point inside Shawano
Everything above resolves to Shawano as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Shawano Average
Shawano Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Shawano
- ●One soil character for all of Shawano
- ●Frost dates read at Shawano's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shawano's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shawano
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shawano, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shawano averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shawano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shawano average
How we know this about Shawano
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Shawano’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Shawano
When does frost risk typically end in Shawano?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shawano typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Shawano?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shawano typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shawano?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shawano sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 1, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shawano?
The federal record around Shawano is a meaningful one — 386 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (233), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Shawano?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shawano's scale — its 5a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shawano'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 Shawano’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shawano's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,286 acres it covers and 386 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shawano's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shawano's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 15 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 386 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shawano, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shawano's boundary and the 4,286 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shawano'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 Shawano's 4,286 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shawano County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shawano 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 Shawano County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shawano's 4,286 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shawano you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,286 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Shawano-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinShawano sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides