Elgin, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Elgin, 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 Elgin 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 Elgin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elgin — the short answer
Elgin, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 466 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 466 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 Elgin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elgin's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elgin
Each reading below is measured for Elgin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElgin runs about 178 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
MeasuredElgin 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 Elgin is in
Elgin sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elgin's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Antelope County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Elgin
Every plant below cleared Elgin's own zone 5b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elgin?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Elgin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elgin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLAIR MOTORS INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- HOMETOWN STATION LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- POPE JOHN XXIII HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ELGIN ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NIEWOHNER FARMS - ELGINCAFO · 2300 ft
- CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 23N 7W 3AADD1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 23N 7W 3AA 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- JSMM FARMS LLC ELGIN FEEDLOTCAFO · 2.6 mi
- 24N 7W27DBDD1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 23N 6W 4DDDD1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 23N 6W28DC 1 ElginNitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elgin'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 Elgin.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Elgin
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elgin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elgin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elgin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elgin — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (20 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 Elgin
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 Elgin average
Your land is one point inside Elgin
Everything above resolves to Elgin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 466 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 city 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 Elgin Average
Elgin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Elgin
- ●One soil character for all of Elgin
- ●Frost dates read at Elgin's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elgin's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elgin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elgin, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elgin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elgin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elgin average
How we know this about Elgin
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Elgin’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Elgin
When does frost risk typically end in Elgin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elgin typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Elgin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elgin typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elgin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elgin sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elgin?
The federal record around Elgin is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elgin?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elgin's scale — its 5b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elgin'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 Elgin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elgin's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 466 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elgin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elgin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 16 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elgin, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elgin's boundary and the 466 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elgin sits in the Central Great 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 Elgin's 466 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Antelope County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Antelope 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 Antelope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elgin's 466 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elgin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 466 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elgin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaElgin sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides