Tunnel City, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Tunnel City, 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 Tunnel City 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 Tunnel City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tunnel City — the short answer
Tunnel City, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 198 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
- 198 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 Tunnel City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tunnel City's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tunnel City
Each reading below is measured for Tunnel City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTunnel City 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
MeasuredTunnel City 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 Tunnel City is in
Tunnel City sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tunnel City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Tunnel City
Every plant below cleared Tunnel City'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 Tunnel City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Tunnel City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tunnel City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COVIA HOLDINGS CORP - TUNNEL CITY PLANTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CHAPMAN BROTHERS FARMSCAFO · 1.8 mi
- TOMAH MUNICIPAL SANITARY LANDFILLSuperfund · 2.4 mi
- Johnson Of WI TransportUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- North West Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- CENTURY TELBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- LA GRANGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- GUNDERSEN LUTHERAN DIALYSIS-TOMAHBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- TOMAH MEMORIAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- MURPHY USA #6655Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- AMERICLEAN DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- NORRIS VERNIER MOTOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tunnel City'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 Tunnel City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tunnel City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tunnel City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tunnel City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tunnel City — Underground Storage Tanks (154 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Tunnel City
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 Tunnel City average
Your land is one point inside Tunnel City
Everything above resolves to Tunnel City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 198 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 Tunnel City Average
Tunnel City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Tunnel City
- ●One soil character for all of Tunnel City
- ●Frost dates read at Tunnel City's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tunnel City's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tunnel City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tunnel City, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tunnel City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tunnel City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tunnel City average
How we know this about Tunnel City
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 Tunnel City’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 Tunnel City
When does frost risk typically end in Tunnel City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tunnel City 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 Tunnel City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tunnel City 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 Tunnel City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tunnel City 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 Tunnel City?
The federal record around Tunnel City runs heavier than most — 234 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (154), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tunnel City?
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 Tunnel City's scale — its 4b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tunnel City'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 Tunnel City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tunnel City's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 198 acres it covers and 234 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tunnel City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tunnel City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 15 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tunnel City, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tunnel City's boundary and the 198 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 Tunnel City's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tunnel City's 198 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tunnel City's 198 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tunnel City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 198 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Tunnel City-wide figureread your own land →
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