Frontier County, in 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Frontier County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Frontier County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Frontier County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Frontier County — the short answer
Frontier County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 624K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 624K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Frontier County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Frontier County's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Frontier County
Across a year, Frontier County accumulates about 2,936 growing degree days above 50°F, about 96 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 56 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Frontier County
Across Frontier County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Coly, Holdrege, and Uly are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
40%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Frontier County
Coly is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Holdrege (29%) and Uly (21%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Frontier County
Each reading below is measured for Frontier County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Frontier County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Frontier County runs about pH 6.3–7.9, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredFrontier County runs about 185 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
MeasuredFrontier County 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 Frontier County is in
Frontier County sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Frontier County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Frontier County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 185-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Frontier County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Frontier County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Frontier County
USGS estimates 268,730 lb of Glyphosate on Frontier County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (160,265 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (89,571 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Frontier County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Frontier County — 23 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Frontier County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Frontier County
Closest first, across Frontier County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MORTENSEN CUSTOM FEEDERSCAFO · 8.5 mi
- FRONTIER COUNTY DISTRICT #2Underground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- WEETH FEEDLOT LTDCAFO · 8.9 mi
- CURTIS METALSBrownfields · 8.9 mi
- GREAT PLAINS TIRE & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- 5N 27W14BB 1Nitrate · 8.9 mi
- AG VALLEY COOP CURTISUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- UNL NE COLLEGE OF TECHNICAL AGBrownfields · 9.0 mi
- MEDICINE CREEK AG INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- MOOREFIELD STATIONBrownfields · 10.6 mi
- 6N 25W 4DDBD1 ORAFINONitrate · 13.1 mi
- MAYWOOD BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 13.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Frontier County'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 Frontier County.
Total Sites
23
across Frontier County
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Frontier County
Severity Distribution
across Frontier County
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 Frontier County
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 Frontier County average
Your land is one point inside Frontier County
Everything above resolves to Frontier County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 624K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Frontier County Average
Frontier County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Frontier County
- ●One soil character for all of Frontier County
- ●Frost dates read at Frontier County's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Frontier County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Frontier County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Frontier County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Frontier County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Frontier County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Frontier County average
How we know this about Frontier County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Frontier County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Frontier County
When does frost risk typically end in Frontier County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Frontier County typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Frontier County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Frontier County sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Frontier County?
The federal record around Frontier County is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest CAFO record about 8.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Frontier County's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Frontier County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Nebraska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Frontier County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Frontier County's own scale — its own ~185-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 23 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Frontier County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Frontier County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Frontier CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 23 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest CAFO record about 8.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Frontier County's boundary and the 623,779 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Frontier County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Frontier County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Frontier County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Frontier County — the ~185 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Frontier County's 623,779 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 23 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Frontier Countyread your own land →