Douglas, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Douglas, 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 Douglas 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 Douglas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Douglas — the short answer
Douglas, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 141 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 141 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 6a is Douglas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Douglas's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Douglas
Each reading below is measured for Douglas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDouglas runs about 197 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
MeasuredDouglas 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 Douglas is in
Douglas sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Douglas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otoe County.
What Grows in Douglas
Every plant below cleared Douglas's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Douglas?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Douglas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Douglas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PALMYRA TBSBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- 6N 9E 2CD 1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- THOMSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2743Underground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - PALMYRA #1 TBSBrownfields · 8.0 mi
- CRAZY CRACKER FIREWORKS LLCBrownfields · 8.1 mi
- HIGHWAY 2 READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 8.3 mi
- PALMYRA DISTRICT O R 1Brownfields · 8.3 mi
- NEBRASKA BULK TRANSPORTS INCBrownfields · 8.6 mi
- JET STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- FERN ISAACSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- NITTY GRITTY GAS & THRIFTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
Measured from Douglas'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 Douglas.
Total Sites
13
within ~10 miles of Douglas
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Douglas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Douglas
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Douglas
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 Douglas average
Your land is one point inside Douglas
Everything above resolves to Douglas as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 141 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 Douglas Average
Douglas Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Douglas
- ●One soil character for all of Douglas
- ●Frost dates read at Douglas's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Douglas's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Douglas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Douglas, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Douglas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Douglas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Douglas average
How we know this about Douglas
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 Douglas’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 Douglas
When does frost risk typically end in Douglas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Douglas typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Douglas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Douglas typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Douglas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Douglas sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 8, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Douglas?
The federal record around Douglas is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (5), the nearest Brownfields record about 3.3 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 Douglas?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Douglas's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Douglas'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 Douglas’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Douglas's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 141 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Douglas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Douglas's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 22 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Douglas, the closest Brownfields record about 3.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Douglas's boundary and the 141 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Douglas's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Douglas's 141 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otoe 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 Otoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Douglas's 141 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Douglas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 141 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 3.3 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 Douglas-wide figureread your own land →