Ames, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Ames, 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 Ames 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 Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ames — the short answer
Ames, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 211 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 211 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 Ames's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ames's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ames
Each reading below is measured for Ames itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmes runs about 194 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
MeasuredAmes 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 Ames is in
Ames sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ames's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dodge County.
What Grows in Ames
Every plant below cleared Ames's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ames?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Ames
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ames. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17N 7E 2CBBB1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CEDAR BLUFFS PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- JOHNSONS TOUCH N GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- TITAN MACHINERY - FREMONTBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- 18N 7E26AD 1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- PLATTE VALLEY EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- BLUFFS TIRE AND REPAIRBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- 17N 6E15 1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- ROYAL CANIN USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 5.0 mi
- 17N 6E10 1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 17N 6E22CD 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 17N 8E28 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ames'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 Ames.
Total Sites
320
within ~10 miles of Ames
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ames
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ames
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ames, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 220 sites within ~10 miles of Ames. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ames
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 Ames average
Your land is one point inside Ames
Everything above resolves to Ames as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 211 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 Ames Average
Ames Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ames
- ●One soil character for all of Ames
- ●Frost dates read at Ames's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ames's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ames
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ames, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ames averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ames average
How we know this about Ames
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 Ames’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 Ames
When does frost risk typically end in Ames?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ames?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ames?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ames sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 7, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ames?
The federal record around Ames is a meaningful one — 320 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (220), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.3 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 Ames?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ames's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ames'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 Ames’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ames's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 211 acres it covers and 320 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ames's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ames's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 21 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 320 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ames, the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ames's boundary and the 211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ames's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ames's 211 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dodge County
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Dodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ames's 211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ames you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 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 Ames-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaAmes sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides