West Allis, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in West Allis, 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 West Allis 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 West Allis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Allis — the short answer
West Allis, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 West Allis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Allis's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Allis
Each reading below is measured for West Allis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Allis runs about 194 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
MeasuredWest Allis 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 West Allis is in
West Allis sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Allis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in West Allis
Every plant below cleared West Allis's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Allis?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near West Allis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Allis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDWAY 4229Brownfields · 950 ft
- Speedway #4229Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KRALL DAN COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- ALLIS CAR CAREBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ALLIS CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ZIEBERTS TRANSMISSIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- THIEM CORPORATION-ROGERS STREETToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- THIEM CORPORATION-ROGERS STREETSuperfund · 1300 ft
- BEAZER EAST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- THIEM CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- AUTOMOTIVE IMPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BESSON AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Allis'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 West Allis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Allis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Allis
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in West Allis
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 West Allis average
Your land is one point inside West Allis
Everything above resolves to West Allis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 West Allis Average
West Allis Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across West Allis
- ●One soil character for all of West Allis
- ●Frost dates read at West Allis's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Allis's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Allis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Allis, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Allis averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Allis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Allis average
How we know this about West Allis
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 West Allis’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 West Allis
When does frost risk typically end in West Allis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Allis typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in West Allis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Allis typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Allis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Allis sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 13, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Allis?
The federal record around West Allis runs heavier than most — 6,472 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,270), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 West Allis?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Allis's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Allis'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 West Allis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at West Allis's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,284 acres it covers and 6,472 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Allis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Allis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 27 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,472 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Allis, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Allis's boundary and the 7,284 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Allis'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 West Allis's 7,284 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 West Allis's 7,284 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Allis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,284 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 West Allis-wide figureread your own land →