South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Milwaukee, 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 South Milwaukee 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 South Milwaukee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Milwaukee — the short answer
South Milwaukee, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 6a is South Milwaukee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Milwaukee's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Milwaukee
Each reading below is measured for South Milwaukee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Milwaukee runs about 217 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSouth Milwaukee sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 South Milwaukee is in
South Milwaukee sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Milwaukee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in South Milwaukee
Every plant below cleared South Milwaukee's own zone 6a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Milwaukee?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near South Milwaukee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Milwaukee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Citgo #4248Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SUNSHINE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Bucyrus Erie InternationalUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CATERPILLAR GLOBAL MININGSuperfund · 700 ft
- CATERPILLAR GLOBAL MININGToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- STEELE SOLUTIONS INCToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- LAST PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SUNBRITE CLEANERSBrownfields · 700 ft
- SOUTH MILWAUKEE WATERWORKSPFAS · 750 ft
- CATERPILLAR GLOBAL MINING-NORTH OF RAWSONBrownfields · 950 ft
- CATERPILLAR GLOBAL MINING - NORTH OF RAWSONToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- Madison ArchivesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Milwaukee'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 South Milwaukee.
Total Sites
2,818
within ~10 miles of South Milwaukee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
25 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Milwaukee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Milwaukee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Milwaukee, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 202 sites within ~10 miles of South Milwaukee. 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 South Milwaukee
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 South Milwaukee average
Your land is one point inside South Milwaukee
Everything above resolves to South Milwaukee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 South Milwaukee Average
South Milwaukee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across South Milwaukee
- ●One soil character for all of South Milwaukee
- ●Frost dates read at South Milwaukee's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Milwaukee's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Milwaukee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Milwaukee averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Milwaukee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Milwaukee average
How we know this about South Milwaukee
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 South Milwaukee’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 South Milwaukee
When does frost risk typically end in South Milwaukee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Milwaukee typically lands around Apr 5, 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 Apr 26.
When is the first frost in South Milwaukee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Milwaukee typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Milwaukee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Milwaukee sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 25, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Milwaukee?
The federal record around South Milwaukee is a meaningful one — 2,818 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,424), 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 South Milwaukee?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Milwaukee's scale — its 6a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Milwaukee'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 South Milwaukee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Milwaukee's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,089 acres it covers and 2,818 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Milwaukee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Milwaukee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 8 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,818 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Milwaukee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Milwaukee's boundary and the 3,089 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Milwaukee'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 South Milwaukee's 3,089 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Milwaukee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Milwaukee's 3,089 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Milwaukee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,089 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 South Milwaukee-wide figureread your own land →