Spring Green, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Green, 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 Spring Green 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 Spring Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Green — the short answer
Spring Green, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- 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
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Spring Green's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Green's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Green
Each reading below is measured for Spring Green itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Green runs about 178 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
MeasuredSpring Green 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 Spring Green is in
Spring Green sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spring Green's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sauk County.
What Grows in Spring Green
Every plant below cleared Spring Green's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Green?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Spring Green
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Green. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THERMO DYNAMICSUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- VILLAGE OF SPRING GREENUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- JOANS FASHIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SPRING GREEN MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 550 ft
- SPRING GREEN CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LIEGEL OIL PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JANET ERDMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FRANK BAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SK-08/04E/07-0018Nitrate · 1100 ft
- SPRING GREEN TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CARLSONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CELIA BARNARD PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Green'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 Spring Green.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Spring Green
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Green
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Green
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Green, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Green. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Spring Green
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 Spring Green average
Your land is one point inside Spring Green
Everything above resolves to Spring Green as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Spring Green Average
Spring Green Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Spring Green
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Green
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Green's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Green's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Green
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Green, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Green averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Green average
How we know this about Spring Green
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 Spring Green’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 Spring Green
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Green?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Green typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Spring Green?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Green 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Green?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Green sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Sep 30, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Green?
The federal record around Spring Green shows 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spring Green?
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 Spring Green's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Green'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 Spring Green’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Green's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,068 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Green's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Green's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 14 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Green, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Green's boundary and the 1,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Green's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Green's 1,068 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sauk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sauk 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 Sauk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Green's 1,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Green you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,068 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Spring Green-wide figureread your own land →
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