Slinger, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Slinger, 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 Slinger 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 Slinger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Slinger — the short answer
Slinger, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Slinger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Slinger's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Slinger
Each reading below is measured for Slinger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSlinger runs about 168 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
MeasuredSlinger 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 Slinger is in
Slinger sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Slinger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Slinger
Every plant below cleared Slinger's own zone 5a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Slinger?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 14 — 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 Slinger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Slinger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LITTLE SWITZERLAND SKI AREABrownfields · 1100 ft
- GTE - SLINGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BUGS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KAUL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WN-10/19E/18-0050Nitrate · 1900 ft
- SLINGER SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DUEHNING ESTATE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- KLETTI BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ST VINCENT DE PAUL STOREBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SLINGER WATER UTILITYPFAS · 2300 ft
- Smileys C Store IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Richard H MayerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Slinger'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 Slinger.
Total Sites
923
within ~10 miles of Slinger
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Slinger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Slinger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Slinger, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Slinger. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Slinger
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 Slinger average
Your land is one point inside Slinger
Everything above resolves to Slinger 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 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 Slinger Average
Slinger Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Slinger
- ●One soil character for all of Slinger
- ●Frost dates read at Slinger's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Slinger's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Slinger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Slinger, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Slinger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Slinger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Slinger average
How we know this about Slinger
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 Slinger’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 Slinger
When does frost risk typically end in Slinger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Slinger 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 Slinger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Slinger typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Slinger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Slinger sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 30, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Slinger?
The federal record around Slinger is a meaningful one — 923 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (443), the nearest Brownfields 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 Slinger?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Slinger's scale — its 5a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Slinger'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 Slinger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Slinger's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,516 acres it covers and 923 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Slinger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Slinger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 14 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 923 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Slinger, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Slinger's boundary and the 3,516 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Slinger'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 Slinger's 3,516 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Slinger's 3,516 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Slinger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,516 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Slinger-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinSlinger sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.