Carroll, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Carroll, 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 Carroll 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 Carroll — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carroll — the short answer
Carroll, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 97 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 97 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 Carroll's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carroll's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carroll
Each reading below is measured for Carroll itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarroll runs about 178 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
MeasuredCarroll 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 Carroll is in
Carroll sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carroll's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Carroll
Every plant below cleared Carroll's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carroll?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Carroll
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carroll. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE CARROLL STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 27N 2E15CCDC1 CNBRLUSCR1 W-08Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 26N 2E 9BCBA1 CNBRREFPA1 W-R1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- F & S FEEDLOT, INC.CAFO · 3.9 mi
- 27N 2E 8ABBB1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- KXNE TV CHANNEL 19Underground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- 26N 2E28CADD1 CNBRLUSCR1 W-09Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 26N 2E26CD 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- MPM FARMS WEST DAIRYCAFO · 5.9 mi
- 27N 3E21A 1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- SIEVERS FARMSCAFO · 6.6 mi
- WES SIEVERS LIVESTOCKCAFO · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carroll'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 Carroll.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Carroll
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carroll
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carroll
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carroll, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carroll — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Carroll
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 Carroll average
Your land is one point inside Carroll
Everything above resolves to Carroll as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 97 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 Carroll Average
Carroll Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Carroll
- ●One soil character for all of Carroll
- ●Frost dates read at Carroll's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carroll's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carroll
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carroll, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carroll averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carroll — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carroll average
How we know this about Carroll
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 Carroll’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 Carroll
When does frost risk typically end in Carroll?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carroll typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Carroll?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carroll typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carroll?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carroll sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carroll?
The federal record around Carroll shows 57 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Carroll?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carroll's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carroll'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 Carroll’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carroll's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 97 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carroll's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carroll's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 16 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carroll, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carroll's boundary and the 97 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carroll'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 Carroll's 97 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carroll's 97 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carroll you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 97 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Carroll-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaCarroll sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.