Cowles, 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.
Even in Cowles, 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 Cowles 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 Cowles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cowles — the short answer
Cowles, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 356 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 356 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 5b is Cowles's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cowles's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cowles
Each reading below is measured for Cowles itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCowles runs about 186 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
MeasuredCowles 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 Cowles is in
Cowles sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cowles's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster County.
What Grows in Cowles
Every plant below cleared Cowles's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cowles?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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.
What's on the federal record near Cowles
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cowles. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 2N 10W 4AC 1Nitrate · 900 ft
- GOTTSCH FEEDING CORP. - RED CLOUDCAFO · 2.8 mi
- LOUIS DINKLAGE LLC LDI WEBSTERCAFO · 3.1 mi
- LDI - WEBSTER COUNTYCAFO · 3.1 mi
- 2N 11W15CDDD1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1583Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- CPI/MR TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- FARMERS COOP RED CLOUDBrownfields · 6.9 mi
- TROUDTs SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- 1N 9W 9CC 1Nitrate · 9.3 mi
- 3N 11W18BA 1Nitrate · 9.3 mi
Measured from Cowles'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 Cowles.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Cowles
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cowles
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cowles
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Cowles
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 Cowles average
Your land is one point inside Cowles
Everything above resolves to Cowles as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 356 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 Cowles Average
Cowles Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cowles
- ●One soil character for all of Cowles
- ●Frost dates read at Cowles's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cowles's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cowles
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cowles, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cowles averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cowles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cowles average
How we know this about Cowles
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 Cowles’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 Cowles
When does frost risk typically end in Cowles?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cowles typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Cowles?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cowles typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cowles?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cowles sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cowles?
The federal record around Cowles is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Nitrate 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 Cowles?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cowles's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cowles'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 Cowles’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cowles's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 356 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cowles's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cowles's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cowles, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cowles's boundary and the 356 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cowles's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cowles's 356 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cowles's 356 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cowles you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 356 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Cowles-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaCowles sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides