Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sturgeon Bay — the short answer
Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- 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)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Sturgeon Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sturgeon Bay's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sturgeon Bay
Each reading below is measured for Sturgeon Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSturgeon Bay runs about 186 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
MeasuredSturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay is in
Sturgeon Bay sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sturgeon Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Door County.
What Grows in Sturgeon Bay
Every plant below cleared Sturgeon Bay's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sturgeon Bay?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Sturgeon Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sturgeon Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Quarterdeck MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- STURGEON BAY UTILITIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WHITE BIRCH INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Sturgeon Bay Sewer UtilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STURGEON BAY FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Marina View Apartments LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BISSEN BLACKTOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PETERSON BUILDERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- Bissen AsphaltUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MUCKIAN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Bay Marine Of Sturgeon BayUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DR-27/26E/08-0002Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay.
Total Sites
270
within ~10 miles of Sturgeon Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sturgeon Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sturgeon Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sturgeon Bay, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 168 sites within ~10 miles of Sturgeon Bay. 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 Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay average
Your land is one point inside Sturgeon Bay
Everything above resolves to Sturgeon Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Sturgeon Bay Average
Sturgeon Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sturgeon Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Sturgeon Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Sturgeon Bay's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sturgeon Bay's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sturgeon Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sturgeon Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sturgeon Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sturgeon Bay average
How we know this about Sturgeon Bay
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 Sturgeon 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 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 Sturgeon Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Sturgeon Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sturgeon Bay typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sturgeon Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sturgeon Bay sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 12, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sturgeon Bay?
The federal record around Sturgeon Bay is a meaningful one — 270 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (168), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sturgeon Bay?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sturgeon Bay's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sturgeon Bay's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,332 acres it covers and 270 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sturgeon Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sturgeon Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 26 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 270 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sturgeon Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sturgeon Bay's boundary and the 6,332 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sturgeon 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 Sturgeon Bay's 6,332 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 Sturgeon Bay's 6,332 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sturgeon 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 6,332 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 Sturgeon Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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