Sarpy County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Sarpy 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
Sarpy County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sarpy 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 Sarpy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sarpy County — the short answer
Sarpy County, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 152K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 152K 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 Sarpy County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sarpy County's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sarpy County
Across a year, Sarpy County accumulates about 3,212 growing degree days above 50°F, about 372 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 83 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 Sarpy County
Across Sarpy County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Contrary, Marshall, and Judson are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sarpy County
The USDA soil survey maps 62% of Sarpy County as well drained — but another 19% drains differently: 13% somewhat poorly drained, 5% moderately well drained.
Contrary is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Marshall (21%) and Judson (8%).
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 Sarpy County
Each reading below is measured for Sarpy 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 Sarpy County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Sarpy County runs about pH 5.8–6.5, 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
MeasuredSarpy County runs about 207 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
MeasuredSarpy 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 Sarpy County is in
Sarpy County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Sarpy County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sarpy County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 207-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 Sarpy 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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Sarpy County
- Japanese beetle8 documented records
- monarch butterfly17 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sarpy County
USGS estimates 83,217 lb of Glyphosate on Sarpy County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (27,442 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (26,038 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 Sarpy County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sarpy County — 446 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Superfund sites. 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 Sarpy 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 Sarpy County
Closest first, across Sarpy County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 13N 11E 12DD (D-Sp1)Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 13N 11E 12DD (D-Sp2)Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 13N 12E 1D (D-136)Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 13N 11E 12DC (S-D-006)Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 13N 12E 18AD (S-D-010)Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 13N 12E 06AC (U-136)Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- FIREBALL GROUP LLC DATA CENTERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- SOUTH SARPY DISTRICT 46Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- 13N 12E 19BD (S-D-002)Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- B & D PITSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WEST MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TRAVELERS DATA CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sarpy 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 Sarpy County.
Severity Distribution
across Sarpy County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sarpy County, two things run higher than the national average across Sarpy County — Nitrate (194 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Sarpy 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 Sarpy County average
Your land is one point inside Sarpy County
Everything above resolves to Sarpy County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 152K 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 Sarpy County Average
Sarpy County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sarpy County
- ●One soil character for all of Sarpy County
- ●Frost dates read at Sarpy County's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sarpy County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sarpy County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sarpy County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sarpy County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sarpy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sarpy County average
How we know this about Sarpy 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 Sarpy County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sarpy County
When does frost risk typically end in Sarpy County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sarpy County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Sarpy County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sarpy County sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sarpy County?
The federal record around Sarpy County is a meaningful one — 446 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (194), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Sarpy County's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sarpy 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 Sarpy County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sarpy County's own scale — its own ~207-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 446 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sarpy County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sarpy County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sarpy CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 446 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sarpy County's boundary and the 152,323 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sarpy County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sarpy County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sarpy 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 Sarpy County — the ~207 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 Sarpy County's 152,323 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 446 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 Sarpy Countyread your own land →