Two Rivers, 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.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Two Rivers, 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 Two Rivers 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 Two Rivers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Two Rivers — the short answer
Two Rivers, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Two Rivers's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Two Rivers's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Two Rivers
Each reading below is measured for Two Rivers itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTwo Rivers runs about 204 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
MeasuredTwo Rivers 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 Two Rivers is in
Two Rivers sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Two Rivers's own centroid rather than borrowed from Manitowoc County.
What Grows in Two Rivers
Every plant below cleared Two Rivers's own zone 5b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Two Rivers?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Two Rivers
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Two Rivers. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Stop N Dock MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- FORMER PETROLEUM CONSERVATION INC TANKSuperfund · 800 ft
- WPSC TWO RIVERS MGPSuperfund · 1000 ft
- PETROLEUM CONSERVATION INCSuperfund · 1700 ft
- LAWRENCE HANSENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- THE AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SUPERAMERICA #4093Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SCHMITT LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WALGREENS CO #9166Brownfields · 2500 ft
- TWO RIVERS SCHOOLS WASHINGTONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- RINGMEIER DRYWALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- RADANT Q PITUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Two Rivers'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 Two Rivers.
Total Sites
574
within ~10 miles of Two Rivers
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Two Rivers
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Two Rivers
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Two Rivers, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Two Rivers — Toxics Release Inventory (54 sites) and CAFO (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Two Rivers
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 Two Rivers average
Your land is one point inside Two Rivers
Everything above resolves to Two Rivers as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Two Rivers Average
Two Rivers Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Two Rivers
- ●One soil character for all of Two Rivers
- ●Frost dates read at Two Rivers's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Two Rivers's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Two Rivers
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Two Rivers, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Two Rivers averages can't show:
We read public map data around Two Rivers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Two Rivers average
How we know this about Two Rivers
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 Two Rivers’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 Two Rivers
When does frost risk typically end in Two Rivers?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Two Rivers typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Two Rivers?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Two Rivers typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Two Rivers?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Two Rivers sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 18, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Two Rivers?
The federal record around Two Rivers is a meaningful one — 574 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (326), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Two Rivers?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Two Rivers's scale — its 5b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Two Rivers'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 Two Rivers’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Two Rivers's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,876 acres it covers and 574 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Two Rivers's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Two Rivers's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 1 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 574 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Two Rivers, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Two Rivers's boundary and the 3,876 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Two Rivers'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 Two Rivers's 3,876 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Manitowoc County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Manitowoc 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 Manitowoc County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Two Rivers's 3,876 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Two Rivers you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,876 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 Two Rivers-wide figureread your own land →