Woodford, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodford, 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 Woodford 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 Woodford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodford — the short answer
Woodford, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 154 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 154 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 5a is Woodford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodford's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodford
Each reading below is measured for Woodford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodford runs about 177 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
MeasuredWoodford sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Woodford is in
Woodford sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette County.
What Grows in Woodford
Every plant below cleared Woodford's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Woodford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LF-02/05E/14-0296Nitrate · 600 ft
- TEMPLETON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Richard LelleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Lelles BarUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STELTER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- J J FOLEY TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GN-02/06E/05-0032Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - ARGYLE TBSBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Unnamed Prospect Along Apple BranMining · 3.6 mi
- OSTBY GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- LF-03/05E/26-0008Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- BLANCHARDVILLE COOP OIL ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodford'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 Woodford.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Woodford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woodford — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (64 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Woodford
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 Woodford average
Your land is one point inside Woodford
Everything above resolves to Woodford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 154 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 Woodford Average
Woodford Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Woodford
- ●One soil character for all of Woodford
- ●Frost dates read at Woodford's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodford's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodford, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodford average
How we know this about Woodford
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 Woodford’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 Woodford
When does frost risk typically end in Woodford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodford typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Woodford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodford 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 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodford sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 2, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodford?
The federal record around Woodford shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Woodford?
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 Woodford's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodford'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 Woodford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woodford's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 154 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 16 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodford, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodford's boundary and the 154 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodford's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodford's 154 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodford's 154 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 154 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Woodford-wide figureread your own land →
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