Arlington, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Arlington, 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 Arlington 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 Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arlington — the short answer
Arlington, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 383 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 383 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 6a is Arlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arlington's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arlington
Each reading below is measured for Arlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArlington runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArlington sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Arlington is in
Arlington sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Arlington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Arlington
Every plant below cleared Arlington's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arlington?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Arlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARLINGTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BELL CREEK INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2238Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- QUIK-PIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COUNTRY QUENCHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 17N 10E 7BBAC1 (U-005)Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- BROWER CONSTRUCTION COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 17N 9E 2DC 3 (U-A3)Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 17N 9E 2DC 2 (D-A2)Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 17N 9E 2DC (D-A1)Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- TITAN MACHINERYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 17N 9E14CA 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arlington'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 Arlington.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arlington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arlington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arlington — CAFO (4 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Arlington
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 Arlington average
Your land is one point inside Arlington
Everything above resolves to Arlington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 383 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 Arlington Average
Arlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Arlington
- ●One soil character for all of Arlington
- ●Frost dates read at Arlington's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arlington's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arlington, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arlington average
How we know this about Arlington
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 Arlington’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 Arlington
When does frost risk typically end in Arlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically lands around Apr 7, 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Arlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arlington typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arlington sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arlington?
The federal record around Arlington is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Arlington?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arlington's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arlington'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 Arlington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arlington's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 383 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arlington, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arlington's boundary and the 383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arlington'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 Arlington's 383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arlington's 383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 383 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Arlington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaArlington sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides