Anselmo, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Anselmo, 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 Anselmo 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 Anselmo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anselmo — the short answer
Anselmo, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 170 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 170 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 Anselmo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anselmo's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anselmo
Each reading below is measured for Anselmo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnselmo runs about 167 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
MeasuredAnselmo 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 Anselmo is in
Anselmo sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Anselmo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Custer County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Anselmo
Every plant below cleared Anselmo's own zone 5a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anselmo?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Anselmo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anselmo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUBEN SQUIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ANSELMO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 19N 21W20AA 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 18N 22W24CCCC1 MERNA NE-NP-SWR-ANitrate · 8.0 mi
- 20N 21W10BC 1 NE-NP-SWR-BNitrate · 10.0 mi
Measured from Anselmo'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 Anselmo.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anselmo
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Anselmo
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 Anselmo average
Your land is one point inside Anselmo
Everything above resolves to Anselmo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 170 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 Anselmo Average
Anselmo Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Anselmo
- ●One soil character for all of Anselmo
- ●Frost dates read at Anselmo's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anselmo's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anselmo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anselmo, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anselmo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anselmo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anselmo average
How we know this about Anselmo
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 Anselmo’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 Anselmo
When does frost risk typically end in Anselmo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anselmo typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Anselmo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anselmo typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anselmo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anselmo sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 28, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anselmo?
The federal record around Anselmo is light — 8 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Anselmo?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Anselmo's scale — its 5a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anselmo'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 Anselmo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Anselmo's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 170 acres it covers and 8 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anselmo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anselmo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 12 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 8 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anselmo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anselmo's boundary and the 170 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Anselmo sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anselmo's 170 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Custer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Custer 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 Custer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anselmo's 170 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anselmo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 170 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 Anselmo-wide figureread your own land →
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