Sister Bay, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sister Bay, 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 Sister Bay 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 Sister Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sister Bay — the short answer
Sister Bay, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Sister Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sister Bay's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sister Bay
Each reading below is measured for Sister Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSister Bay runs about 196 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
MeasuredSister Bay 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 Sister Bay is in
Sister Bay sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sister Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Door County.
What Grows in Sister Bay
Every plant below cleared Sister Bay's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sister Bay?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Sister Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sister Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLENNS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 550 ft
- Country Walk AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- VOIGHT AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SISTER BAY RESORT & YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Lundquist Plumbing IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JOSEPH JUNGWIRTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PASSTIMES BOOKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MUCKIAN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Sister Bay MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Kens Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Scandia Village Good SamaritanUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GTE - SISTER BAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sister Bay'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 Sister Bay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sister Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sister Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sister Bay, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 79 sites within ~10 miles of Sister Bay. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Sister Bay
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 Sister Bay average
Your land is one point inside Sister Bay
Everything above resolves to Sister Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sister Bay Average
Sister Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sister Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Sister Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Sister Bay's scale: Apr 23 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sister Bay's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sister Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sister Bay, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sister Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sister Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sister Bay average
How we know this about Sister Bay
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 Sister Bay’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 Sister Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Sister Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sister Bay typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Sister Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sister Bay typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sister Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sister Bay sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 22, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sister Bay?
The federal record around Sister Bay shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Sister Bay?
From about Oct 6 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 Nov 5 (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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sister Bay's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sister Bay'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 Sister Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sister Bay's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,707 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sister Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sister Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Nov 5 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sister Bay, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sister Bay's boundary and the 1,707 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sister Bay'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 Sister Bay's 1,707 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Door County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Door 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 Door County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sister Bay's 1,707 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sister Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,707 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Sister Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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