Ashland, Nebraska, 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.
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 Ashland, 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 Ashland 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 Ashland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ashland — the short answer
Ashland, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 879 acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 879 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 Ashland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ashland's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ashland
Each reading below is measured for Ashland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAshland 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
MeasuredAshland 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 Ashland is in
Ashland sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ashland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saunders County.
What Grows in Ashland
Every plant below cleared Ashland'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 Ashland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. 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 Ashland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ashland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2736Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ASHLAND AUTO SERVICE & REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ASHLAND SALVAGE INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ORPHAN TANKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ASHLAND ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- U STOP CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ASHLAND WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 13N 10E30CDDA1 M23RNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 13N 9E 26 NWNE P-0706Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 13N 10E32CBAB1 M90-26RNitrate · 2.5 mi
- SOUTH WELLFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 13N 10E32CABC1 M90-36RNitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ashland'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 Ashland.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Ashland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ashland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ashland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ashland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ashland — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (94 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ashland
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 Ashland average
Your land is one point inside Ashland
Everything above resolves to Ashland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 879 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 city 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 Ashland Average
Ashland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ashland
- ●One soil character for all of Ashland
- ●Frost dates read at Ashland's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ashland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ashland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ashland, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ashland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ashland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ashland average
How we know this about Ashland
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ashland’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ashland
When does frost risk typically end in Ashland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ashland 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 Ashland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ashland 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 Ashland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ashland 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 Ashland?
The federal record around Ashland is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ashland?
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 Ashland's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ashland'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 Ashland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ashland's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 879 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ashland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ashland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 21 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ashland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ashland's boundary and the 879 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 Ashland'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 Ashland's 879 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saunders County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saunders 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 Saunders County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ashland's 879 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ashland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 879 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ashland-wide figureread your own land →