Place guide
Planting zones in Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
This metro spans USDA zones 5a to 6a, so there is no single zone for Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 63% of its ZIP codes are zone 5b; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
The growing season in Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI is closing
Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 3 – October 29 across the 19 NOAA stations serving this metro area .
Your next season already has a date
The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around February 22 – March 13 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 19 – May 8 here.
These are ranges across the whole metro area. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.
All 19 stations agreeAt least one station
Every one of the 19 NOAA stations serving this metro area counts May 8 – October 3 as growing season (148 days). Widening to any single station gives April 19 – October 29 (193 days).
That is a 45-day difference inside one metro area — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.
Which zone you are in depends where you are
Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI covers 3 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the metro one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — which is fine for the 63% in zone 5b and wrong for the other 37%. Here is the actual split.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5b | 51 | 63% | |
| 6a | 25 | 31% | |
| 5a | 5 | 6% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the metro's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
Those are the earliest and latest medians among the 19 stations serving this metro — not an average, and not one station standing in for the rest. Half of years freeze later than a station's own median.
The spread is the point. Even in a metro that is one hardiness zone throughout, its stations disagree about the last spring freeze. Hardiness zone and frost date measure different things — a zone is the average annual coldest night, a freeze date is when the season turns — and a place can be uniform in one and varied in the other. Use the tools below with your own ZIP rather than the ends of this range.
Your growing season
NOAA publishes a growing-season length for each station, and across the 19 stations serving Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI it runs 148–192 days . That figure is published, not computed from the two freeze dates — subtracting one from the other gives the wrong answer wherever a season crosses New Year. Mean summer high (June–August) runs 76–83 °F , below the 90 °F point where cool-season crops reliably bolt. Summer rain over the same months runs 10.6–13.2" across those 19 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 94% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 79 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
When to start seeds in Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
Every spring job for 63 crop dates, counted from this metro's own last spring freeze. Each is a range across all 19 stations — the earliest and latest that job falls anywhere in the metro — because no one station speaks for the whole area.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Onions | Start indoors | February 22 – March 13 | 8 weeks before |
| Peppers | Start indoors | February 22 – March 13 | 8 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Collards | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Kale | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Peas | Direct sow | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Spinach | Direct sow | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Sweet Potato | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Tomatoes | Start indoors | March 8 – March 27 | 6 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Start indoors | March 15 – April 3 | 5 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Start indoors | March 15 – April 3 | 5 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Start indoors | March 15 – April 3 | 5 weeks before |
| Arugula | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Beets | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Mustard Greens | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Okra | Start indoors | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Radishes | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Turnips | Direct sow | March 22 – April 10 | 4 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Set out | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Carrots | Direct sow | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Direct sow | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Set out | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Cucumbers | Start indoors | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Set out | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Direct sow | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Set out | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Direct sow | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Set out | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Pumpkins | Start indoors | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Summer Squash | Start indoors | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Winter Squash | Start indoors | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Zucchini | Start indoors | March 29 – April 17 | 3 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Direct sow | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Set out | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Set out | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Cilantro | Direct sow | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Set out | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Direct sow | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Set out | April 5 – April 24 | 2 weeks before |
| Dill | Direct sow | April 12 – May 1 | 1 week before |
| Bush Beans | Direct sow | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Set out | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Direct sow | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Set out | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Direct sow | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Set out | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Sweet Corn | Direct sow | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Tomatoes | Set out | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Direct sow | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Set out | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Direct sow | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Set out | April 26 – May 15 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Direct sow | May 3 – May 22 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Direct sow | May 3 – May 22 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Set out | May 3 – May 22 | 2 weeks after |
| Peppers | Set out | May 3 – May 22 | 2 weeks after |
| Southern Peas | Direct sow | May 3 – May 22 | 2 weeks after |
| Sweet Potato | Set out | May 3 – May 22 | 2 weeks after |
The week offsets are conventional extension guidance and vary by variety; the freeze dates they are counted from are measured. For a single date rather than a range, run when do I start my seeds? with your own ZIP code.
What survives the winter changes across Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 51 come through the winter in zone 6a and only 48 in zone 5a. That is a different garden at each end of the same metro.
| Zone | ZIPs | Survive | Fail for being too warm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5a | 5 | 48 of 74 | 0 |
| 5b | 51 | 48 of 74 | 0 |
| 6a | 25 | 51 of 74 | 0 |
The last column is the counterintuitive one, and it is why the totals do not simply rise as the winters get milder. Most temperate fruit needs a documented number of hours below about 45 °F to break dormancy and set a crop, so an apple fails in a winter that is too warm; currants and rhubarb cook in the summer heat that comes with it. See the full list with reasons.
Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic
- Last spring freeze
- Plan to May 25 to be careful. Median April 19 – May 8 across 19 stations; April 6 is the optimistic end.
- First fall freeze
- Plan to September 20 to be careful. Median October 3 – October 29 across 19 stations; November 10 is the optimistic end.
NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.
The 19 stations behind these numbers
All 19 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 68 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole metro area.
A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.
Every figure above comes from these, and each is named so you can check it. Which station serves a given ZIP code, and how far away it is, varies across the metro — the table below gives it per ZIP code rather than this page averaging it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium WWTP, WI | USC00470652 | May 5 | October 12 | 159 days |
| Brookfield WWTP, WI | USC00471062 | April 30 | October 14 | 164 days |
| Germantown, WI | USC00473058 | May 6 | October 8 | 154 days |
| Grafton WWTP, WI | USC00473198 | April 23 | October 24 | 182 days |
| Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | USC00473391 | May 3 | October 14 | 162 days |
| Hartford WWTP, WI | USC00473453 | May 8 | October 3 | 148 days |
| Jackson, WI | USC00473930 | April 30 | October 15 | 167 days |
| Milwaukee Mitchell AP, WI | USW00014839 | April 19 | October 29 | 192 days |
| Mt Mary College, WI | USC00475474 | April 26 | October 18 | 173 days |
| Oconomowoc WWTP, WI | USC00476200 | April 30 | October 12 | 164 days |
| Port Washington, WI | USC00476764 | April 27 | October 22 | 176 days |
| Richfield 3 Ssw, WI | USC00477148 | April 30 | October 16 | 167 days |
| Saukville WWTP, WI | USC00477581 | May 5 | October 11 | 158 days |
| Slinger WWTP, WI | USC00477796 | May 5 | October 5 | 152 days |
| South Milwaukee WWTP, WI | USC00477964 | April 22 | October 26 | 184 days |
| Sullivan 3Se, WI | USC00478316 | May 3 | October 9 | 157 days |
| W Bend Public Works, WI | USC00479052 | May 1 | October 12 | 161 days |
| Waukesha WWTP, WI | USC00478937 | May 1 | October 13 | 162 days |
| West Allis, WI | USC00479046 | April 26 | October 22 | 177 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Every ZIP code in Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per metro area, so this is the exact answer rather than the metro area's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.
| ZIP code | USDA zone | Nearest NOAA station | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53002 | 5a | W Bend Public Works, WI | 14.1 km |
| 53004 | 5b | Belgium WWTP, WI | 2.6 km |
| 53005 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 5.7 km |
| 53007 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 5.3 km |
| 53012 | 5b | Grafton WWTP, WI | 6.5 km |
| 53017 | 5a | Richfield 3 Ssw, WI | 3.7 km |
| 53018 | 5b | Oconomowoc WWTP, WI | 10.9 km |
| 53021 | 5b | Belgium WWTP, WI | 12.6 km |
| 53022 | 5b | Germantown, WI | 0.9 km |
| 53024 | 6a | Grafton WWTP, WI | 3.2 km |
| 53027 | 5a | Hartford WWTP, WI | 3.7 km |
| 53029 | 5b | Richfield 3 Ssw, WI | 12.9 km |
| 53033 | 5a | Richfield 3 Ssw, WI | 4.8 km |
| 53037 | 5b | Jackson, WI | 1.0 km |
| 53040 | 5b | W Bend Public Works, WI | 12.9 km |
| 53045 | 5b | Brookfield WWTP, WI | 2.2 km |
| 53046 | 5b | Richfield 3 Ssw, WI | 7.3 km |
| 53051 | 5b | Germantown, WI | 8.8 km |
| 53058 | 5b | Oconomowoc WWTP, WI | 7.6 km |
| 53066 | 5b | Oconomowoc WWTP, WI | 1.9 km |
| 53069 | 5b | Oconomowoc WWTP, WI | 5.9 km |
| 53072 | 5b | Brookfield WWTP, WI | 7.9 km |
| 53074 | 5b | Port Washington, WI | 4.5 km |
| 53076 | 5b | Jackson, WI | 6.4 km |
| 53080 | 5b | Saukville WWTP, WI | 5.0 km |
| 53086 | 5a | Slinger WWTP, WI | 2.0 km |
| 53089 | 5b | Richfield 3 Ssw, WI | 7.7 km |
| 53090 | 5b | W Bend Public Works, WI | 6.0 km |
| 53092 | 6a | Grafton WWTP, WI | 10.4 km |
| 53095 | 5b | W Bend Public Works, WI | 3.9 km |
| 53097 | 5b | Grafton WWTP, WI | 8.6 km |
| 53103 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 14.2 km |
| 53110 | 6a | Milwaukee Mitchell AP, WI | 3.6 km |
| 53118 | 5b | Sullivan 3Se, WI | 4.8 km |
| 53119 | 5b | Sullivan 3Se, WI | 9.8 km |
| 53122 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 5.4 km |
| 53127 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 12.0 km |
| 53129 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 2.4 km |
| 53130 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 1.7 km |
| 53132 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 5.9 km |
| 53146 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 8.5 km |
| 53149 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 16.4 km |
| 53150 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 11.3 km |
| 53151 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 6.7 km |
| 53153 | 5b | Sullivan 3Se, WI | 12.4 km |
| 53154 | 6a | South Milwaukee WWTP, WI | 4.7 km |
| 53172 | 6a | South Milwaukee WWTP, WI | 1.5 km |
| 53183 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 9.9 km |
| 53186 | 5b | Brookfield WWTP, WI | 4.0 km |
| 53188 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 4.0 km |
| 53189 | 5b | Waukesha WWTP, WI | 7.7 km |
| 53202 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 9.6 km |
| 53203 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 7.4 km |
| 53204 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 6.2 km |
| 53205 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 6.8 km |
| 53206 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 7.8 km |
| 53207 | 6a | Milwaukee Mitchell AP, WI | 2.3 km |
| 53208 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 4.0 km |
| 53209 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 9.0 km |
| 53210 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 4.5 km |
| 53211 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 11.9 km |
| 53212 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 9.8 km |
| 53213 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 3.4 km |
| 53214 | 5b | West Allis, WI | 1.0 km |
| 53215 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 5.2 km |
| 53216 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 4.6 km |
| 53217 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 13.4 km |
| 53218 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 5.5 km |
| 53219 | 5b | West Allis, WI | 2.6 km |
| 53220 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 4.4 km |
| 53221 | 6a | Milwaukee Mitchell AP, WI | 3.2 km |
| 53222 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 1.1 km |
| 53223 | 6a | Mt Mary College, WI | 10.4 km |
| 53224 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 10.2 km |
| 53225 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 4.8 km |
| 53226 | 5b | Mt Mary College, WI | 2.6 km |
| 53227 | 5b | West Allis, WI | 4.1 km |
| 53228 | 5b | Hales Corners/Whitnall Park/Bo, WI | 3.7 km |
| 53233 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 5.9 km |
| 53235 | 6a | Milwaukee Mitchell AP, WI | 3.6 km |
| 53295 | 6a | West Allis, WI | 2.1 km |
ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.
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What survives my winter?
Runs on the hardiness zone, so it answers for all of Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI at once — zone across 74 perennial fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs.
- When do I start my seeds?
Dates every spring job from your own last freeze — sow indoors, set out, direct sow.
- When do I sow the next round?
How often each crop is worth re-sowing, and when the next sowing is due.
- What can I still plant?
Counts the growing days left before your first fall freeze, crop by crop.
Other places to compare
These metros span exactly the same zones — 5a–6a — so the same plants are in and out of range across them. The freeze dates and the spring calendar are their own.
- Colorado Springs, CO — zones 5a–6a
- Missoula, MT — zones 5a–6a
- Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY — zones 5a–6a
- Omaha, NE-IA — zones 5a–6a
Gardening in Wisconsin — zones 4a– 6a covers the whole state: how its 778 ZIP codes divide between 5 hardiness zones, and the freeze dates across every NOAA station in it.
Other metro areas in WI:
- Madison, WI Zones 5a–5b
- Green Bay, WI Zones 4b–5b
- La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Zones 4b–5a
- Appleton, WI Zones 5a–5b
- Eau Claire, WI Zone 4b
- Wausau, WI Zones 4b–5a
- Fond du Lac, WI Zones 5a–5b
- Sheboygan, WI Zones 5b–6a
- Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI Zones 5b–6a
- Janesville-Beloit, WI Zones 5a–5b
- Kenosha, WI Zones 5b–6a
- Oshkosh-Neenah, WI Zones 5a–5b
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Trunk wrapZone 5a is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
- Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
- MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 5a, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station whose normals cover a ZIP code in this metro. Nothing here is estimated, and no station stands in for another.
This page names no single station on purpose. Picking one to represent a metro sounds reasonable and is not: the station serving the most ZIP codes is an artifact of where ZIP centroids happen to fall, and it selects a lock on the Monongahela for Pittsburgh and a far southern suburb for Chicago. A range across every station is true; a single cited date for a whole metro is not.