Creston, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Creston, 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 Creston 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 Creston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Creston — the short answer
Creston, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 132 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 132 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 Creston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Creston's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Creston
Each reading below is measured for Creston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCreston runs about 182 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
MeasuredCreston 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 Creston is in
Creston sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Creston's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Platte County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Creston
Every plant below cleared Creston's own zone 5b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Creston?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Creston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Creston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRESTON FERTILIZER CO INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- B & B FARMSCAFO · 1.7 mi
- 20N 1E30CB 1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 20N 1W10BABA1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- MCMULLIN TRANSFER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- TODD WENT LIVESTOCKCAFO · 3.6 mi
- DICKE FEEDYARDCAFO · 4.7 mi
- DALE DICKE LIVESTOCKCAFO · 4.7 mi
- HUMPHREY GRAIN BINSuperfund · 6.3 mi
- RBs FOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- COOPERATIVE SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Creston'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 Creston.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Creston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Creston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Creston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Creston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Creston — CAFO (21 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Creston
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 Creston average
Your land is one point inside Creston
Everything above resolves to Creston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 132 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 Creston Average
Creston Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Creston
- ●One soil character for all of Creston
- ●Frost dates read at Creston's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Creston's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Creston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Creston, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Creston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Creston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Creston average
How we know this about Creston
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 Creston’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 Creston
When does frost risk typically end in Creston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Creston typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Creston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Creston typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Creston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Creston sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 3, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Creston?
The federal record around Creston is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly CAFO entries (21), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Creston?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Creston's scale — its 5b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Creston'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 Creston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Creston's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 132 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Creston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Creston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 17 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Creston, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Creston's boundary and the 132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Creston sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Creston's 132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Platte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Platte 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 Platte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Creston's 132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Creston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 132 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Creston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaCreston sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides