Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Whitefish 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 Whitefish 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 Whitefish Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Whitefish Bay — the short answer
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin: USDA zone 6a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Whitefish Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitefish Bay's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whitefish Bay
Each reading below is measured for Whitefish Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhitefish Bay runs about 218 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
MeasuredWhitefish Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Whitefish Bay is in
Whitefish Bay sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Whitefish Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Milwaukee County.
What Grows in Whitefish Bay
Every plant below cleared Whitefish Bay's own zone 6a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whitefish Bay?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Whitefish Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whitefish Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Whitefish Bay Village HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WHITEFISH BAY VILBrownfields · 650 ft
- KSICINSKI NANCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Jamie & Nicolas DesegonzacUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WILLUS MORGANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EAST SHORE PROPERTIES LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SHELL SERVICE FLEUR DE LISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WHITEFISH BAY NATIONAL GUARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ELIZABETH HERMANNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MICHAEL COHENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Genes Bay ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPINELLI AMOCO SS #15352Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitefish 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 Whitefish Bay.
Total Sites
4,807
within ~10 miles of Whitefish Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
42 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whitefish Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whitefish Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitefish Bay, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 303 sites within ~10 miles of Whitefish Bay. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Whitefish 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 Whitefish Bay average
Your land is one point inside Whitefish Bay
Everything above resolves to Whitefish Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Whitefish Bay Average
Whitefish Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Whitefish Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Whitefish Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Whitefish Bay's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitefish Bay's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whitefish Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitefish Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitefish Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitefish Bay average
How we know this about Whitefish Bay
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 Whitefish 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 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 Whitefish Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Whitefish Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitefish Bay typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Whitefish Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whitefish Bay typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whitefish Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitefish Bay sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 27, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitefish Bay?
The federal record around Whitefish Bay is a meaningful one — 4,807 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,473), 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 Whitefish Bay?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Whitefish Bay's scale — its 6a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitefish 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 Whitefish Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Whitefish Bay's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,354 acres it covers and 4,807 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitefish Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitefish Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 10 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,807 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whitefish Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whitefish Bay's boundary and the 1,354 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Whitefish Bay'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 Whitefish Bay's 1,354 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 Whitefish Bay's 1,354 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whitefish 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 1,354 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 Whitefish Bay-wide figureread your own land →