Cortland, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cortland, 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 Cortland 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 Cortland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cortland — the short answer
Cortland, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 170 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- 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 6a is Cortland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cortland's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cortland
Each reading below is measured for Cortland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCortland runs about 200 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
MeasuredCortland 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 Cortland is in
Cortland sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cortland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gage County.
What Grows in Cortland
Every plant below cleared Cortland's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cortland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Cortland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cortland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EZ STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MONOLITH OLIVE CREEK 1Toxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- MONOLITH OLIVE CREEK 1Brownfields · 4.8 mi
- OTTE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- ROCKE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- PRAIRIELAND DAIRY, LLCCAFO · 4.8 mi
- NPPD SHELDON STATIONBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- NPPD SHELDON STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
- 7N 6E19DA 2Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 7N 6E19DA 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - FIRTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- NORRIS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 5.6 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cortland'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 Cortland.
Total Sites
19
within ~10 miles of Cortland
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cortland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cortland
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Cortland
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 Cortland average
Your land is one point inside Cortland
Everything above resolves to Cortland 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 Cortland Average
Cortland Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cortland
- ●One soil character for all of Cortland
- ●Frost dates read at Cortland's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cortland's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cortland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cortland, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cortland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cortland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cortland average
How we know this about Cortland
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 Cortland’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 Cortland
When does frost risk typically end in Cortland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cortland 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 Cortland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cortland typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cortland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cortland sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 10, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cortland?
The federal record around Cortland is light — 19 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Cortland?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cortland's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cortland'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 Cortland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cortland's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 170 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cortland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cortland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 24 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cortland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cortland's boundary and the 170 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cortland'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 Cortland's 170 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gage 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 Gage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cortland's 170 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cortland 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 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 Cortland-wide figureread your own land →