Yorkville, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Yorkville, 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 Yorkville 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 Yorkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Yorkville — the short answer
Yorkville, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 Yorkville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yorkville's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yorkville
Each reading below is measured for Yorkville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYorkville runs about 182 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
MeasuredYorkville 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 Yorkville is in
Yorkville sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Yorkville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Racine County is mostly Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Yorkville
Every plant below cleared Yorkville's own zone 5b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yorkville?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Yorkville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yorkville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JIM UPASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DAVIS & DAVIS INVESTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Henderson Seed Farm IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Charles Kuiper FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Nelson FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- EDGAR SKEWES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Robin ChristensenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- C AND D FOODS, INCCAFO · 1.9 mi
- SMITH SYSTEMS 10 DAY YARD HRIBARBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- SHATTNER PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Maple Leaf FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ECHO LAKE FOODS, FRANKSVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yorkville'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 Yorkville.
Total Sites
861
within ~10 miles of Yorkville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yorkville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yorkville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yorkville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of Yorkville. 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 Yorkville
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 Yorkville average
Your land is one point inside Yorkville
Everything above resolves to Yorkville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Yorkville Average
Yorkville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Yorkville
- ●One soil character for all of Yorkville
- ●Frost dates read at Yorkville's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yorkville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yorkville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yorkville, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yorkville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yorkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yorkville average
How we know this about Yorkville
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 Yorkville’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 Yorkville
When does frost risk typically end in Yorkville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yorkville typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Yorkville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yorkville typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yorkville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yorkville sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 5, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yorkville?
The federal record around Yorkville is a meaningful one — 861 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (452), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles 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 Yorkville?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yorkville's scale — its 5b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yorkville'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 Yorkville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yorkville's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,437 acres it covers and 861 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yorkville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yorkville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 19 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 861 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yorkville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yorkville's boundary and the 21,437 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Yorkville sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yorkville's 21,437 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Racine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Racine 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 Racine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yorkville's 21,437 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yorkville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,437 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Yorkville-wide figureread your own land →