Greeley County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Greeley County lies within the Nebraska Sandhills — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Greeley County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Greeley 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 Greeley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Greeley County — the short answer
Greeley County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 365K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 365K 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 5a is Greeley County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greeley County's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Greeley County
Across a year, Greeley County accumulates about 2,645 growing degree days above 50°F, about 195 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 25 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 Greeley County
Across Greeley County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Uly, Valentine, and Coly are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–6.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Greeley County
The USDA soil survey maps 74% of Greeley County as well drained — but another 26% drains differently: 20% excessively drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Uly is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Valentine (21%) and Coly (12%).
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 Greeley County
Each reading below is measured for Greeley 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 Greeley 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 Greeley County runs about pH 6.7–6.9, 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
MeasuredGreeley County runs about 164 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
MeasuredGreeley County 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 Greeley County is in
Greeley County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (70%) and Nebraska Sand Hills (30%). 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 Greeley County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Greeley County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 164-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 Greeley County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Greeley County
- monarch butterfly18 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Greeley County
USGS estimates 90,764 lb of Glyphosate on Greeley County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (79,551 lb) and Acetochlor (70,979 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 Greeley County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Greeley County — 29 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Greeley 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 Greeley County
Closest first, across Greeley County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SACRED HEART CHURCH/SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SPALDING COOP ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GREELEYS RAPID STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NORDHUES CATTLECAFO · 5.6 mi
- 20N 10W23AD 1Nitrate · 10.1 mi
- 20N 10W 8BB 1Nitrate · 10.9 mi
- 17N 12W 4DD 1Nitrate · 11.0 mi
- TROTTERS WHOA & GO EXPRESS IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.2 mi
- CJs PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.3 mi
- 18N 12W19BA 1Nitrate · 11.5 mi
- 18N 12W19CA 1Nitrate · 11.7 mi
- MILLER POWER SPORTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greeley 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 Greeley County.
Total Sites
29
across Greeley County
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Greeley County
Severity Distribution
across Greeley County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greeley County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites across Greeley County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Greeley 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 Greeley County average
Your land is one point inside Greeley County
Everything above resolves to Greeley County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 365K 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 Greeley County Average
Greeley County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Greeley County
- ●One soil character for all of Greeley County
- ●Frost dates read at Greeley County's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greeley County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Greeley County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greeley County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greeley County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greeley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greeley County average
How we know this about Greeley 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 Greeley County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Greeley County
When does frost risk typically end in Greeley County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greeley County typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Greeley County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greeley County sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 26, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greeley County?
The federal record around Greeley County is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Greeley County's scale — its 5a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greeley 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 Greeley County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Greeley County's own scale — its own ~164-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 29 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greeley County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greeley County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Greeley CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 29 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Greeley County's boundary and the 364,688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Greeley County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Greeley County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Greeley 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 Greeley County — the ~164 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 Greeley County's 364,688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 29 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 Greeley Countyread your own land →