Wheeler, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wheeler, 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 Wheeler 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 Wheeler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wheeler — the short answer
Wheeler, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 527 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 527 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 Wheeler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wheeler's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wheeler
Each reading below is measured for Wheeler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWheeler runs about 175 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
MeasuredWheeler 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 Wheeler is in
Wheeler sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wheeler's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dunn County.
What Grows in Wheeler
Every plant below cleared Wheeler's own zone 4b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wheeler?
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 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 16 — 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 Wheeler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wheeler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bridge Stop II LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- J & D SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- OTTER CREEK TOWNSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RANDY L PROCHNOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TOWN OF OTTER CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SHERIDAN TOWNSHIP HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DU-30/13W/36-0112Nitrate · 2500 ft
- New Life Church Of The NazareneUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WHWC TV FMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- KOEHLER GENEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Steve RasmussenUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- DU-29/12W/09-0126Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wheeler'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 Wheeler.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Wheeler
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wheeler
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wheeler
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Wheeler
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 Wheeler average
Your land is one point inside Wheeler
Everything above resolves to Wheeler as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 527 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 Wheeler Average
Wheeler Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Wheeler
- ●One soil character for all of Wheeler
- ●Frost dates read at Wheeler's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wheeler's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wheeler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wheeler, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wheeler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wheeler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wheeler average
How we know this about Wheeler
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 Wheeler’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 Wheeler
When does frost risk typically end in Wheeler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wheeler 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 Wheeler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wheeler typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wheeler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wheeler sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 2, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wheeler?
The federal record around Wheeler shows 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Wheeler?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wheeler's scale — its 4b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wheeler'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 Wheeler’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wheeler's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 527 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wheeler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wheeler's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 16 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wheeler, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wheeler's boundary and the 527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wheeler'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 Wheeler's 527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dunn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dunn 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 Dunn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wheeler's 527 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wheeler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 527 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wheeler-wide figureread your own land →
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