Gage County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Gage County lies within the Southeast Nebraska / Omaha-Lincoln Loess Corridor — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Gage County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Gage 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 Gage County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gage County — the short answer
Gage County, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 545K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 545K 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 6a is Gage County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gage County's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Gage County
Across a year, Gage County accumulates about 3,359 growing degree days above 50°F, about 519 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 89 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 Gage County
Across Gage County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Wymore, Otoe, and Malmo are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.1, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
49%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Gage County
The USDA soil survey maps 86% of Gage County as moderately well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 11% well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Wymore is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Otoe (16%) and Malmo (15%).
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 Gage County
Each reading below is measured for Gage 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 Gage County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Gage County runs about pH 6.0–6.1, 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
MeasuredGage County runs about 199 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
MeasuredGage County 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 Gage County is in
Gage County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Corn Belt Plains (68%) and Central Great Plains (32%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Gage County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Gage County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 199-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 Gage County?
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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Gage County
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly17 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Gage County
USGS estimates 475,566 lb of Glyphosate on Gage County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acephate (199,950 lb) and Atrazine (199,490 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 Gage County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Gage County — 120 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Gage County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Gage County
Closest first, across Gage County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEATRICE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SPADY-RUNCIE CHEV-OLDS INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - BEATRICE NORTH BULKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- EAST COURT 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1744Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SPEEDEE MART 2706 BEATRICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- GAGE COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPTBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- WAYNE LINEWEBER MARTEN TRANSPORT LTDBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- NORMAN PIEPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- HOOVER MATERIALS HANDLING GRPBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- HOOVER MATERIALS HANDLING GRPToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- FORMER HOUSEMAN ONE HOUR CLEANERSSuperfund · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gage 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 Gage County.
Total Sites
120
across Gage County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Gage County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gage County, two things run higher than the national average across Gage County — Superfund (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gage 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 Gage County average
Your land is one point inside Gage County
Everything above resolves to Gage County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 545K 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 Gage County Average
Gage County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gage County
- ●One soil character for all of Gage County
- ●Frost dates read at Gage County's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gage County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Gage County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gage County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gage County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gage County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gage County average
How we know this about Gage 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 Gage County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Gage County
When does frost risk typically end in Gage County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gage County 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.
How long is the growing season in Gage County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gage County sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 9, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gage County?
The federal record around Gage County is a meaningful one — 120 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (49), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Gage County's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gage 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 Gage County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Gage County's own scale — its own ~199-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 120 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gage County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gage County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Gage CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 120 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Gage County's boundary and the 544,939 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Gage County spans, Western Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Gage County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Gage 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 Gage County — the ~199 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 Gage County's 544,939 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 120 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 Gage Countyread your own land →