Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Soldiers Grove, 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 Soldiers Grove 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 Soldiers Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Soldiers Grove — the short answer
Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~174
- 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 4b is Soldiers Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Soldiers Grove's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Soldiers Grove
Each reading below is measured for Soldiers Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSoldiers Grove runs about 174 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
MeasuredSoldiers Grove sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Soldiers Grove is in
Soldiers Grove sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Soldiers Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Soldiers Grove
Every plant below cleared Soldiers Grove's own zone 4b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Soldiers Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Soldiers Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Soldiers Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DERROLD HARTLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Star Valley StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Marie RyanUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CONOCO GAS CO RICHLAND CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VILLAGE OF SOLDIERS GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TOWERVILLE TAVERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- GARREL MAYBEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CRAWFORD CNTY FAIRGROUNDSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TURBENS MOBILE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CR-11/03W/31-0004Nitrate · 1400 ft
- NORTH CRAWFORD SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BROADBENT OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Soldiers Grove'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 Soldiers Grove.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Soldiers Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 brownfield sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Soldiers Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Soldiers Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Soldiers Grove, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Soldiers Grove. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Soldiers Grove
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 Soldiers Grove average
Your land is one point inside Soldiers Grove
Everything above resolves to Soldiers Grove 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 Soldiers Grove Average
Soldiers Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Soldiers Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Soldiers Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Soldiers Grove's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Soldiers Grove's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Soldiers Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Soldiers Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Soldiers Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Soldiers Grove average
How we know this about Soldiers Grove
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 Soldiers Grove’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 Soldiers Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Soldiers Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Soldiers Grove typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Soldiers Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Soldiers Grove 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 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Soldiers Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Soldiers Grove sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 1, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Soldiers Grove?
The federal record around Soldiers Grove shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Soldiers Grove?
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 Soldiers Grove's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Soldiers Grove'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 Soldiers Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Soldiers Grove's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,333 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Soldiers Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Soldiers Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 15 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Soldiers Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Soldiers Grove's boundary and the 2,333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Soldiers Grove's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Soldiers Grove's 2,333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Soldiers Grove's 2,333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Soldiers Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,333 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 Soldiers Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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