Elm Creek, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elm Creek, 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 Elm Creek 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 Elm Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elm Creek — the short answer
Elm Creek, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 445 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 445 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 Elm Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elm Creek's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elm Creek
Each reading below is measured for Elm Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElm Creek runs about 187 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
MeasuredElm Creek 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 Elm Creek is in
Elm Creek sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elm Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buffalo County.
What Grows in Elm Creek
Every plant below cleared Elm Creek's own zone 5b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elm Creek?
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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Elm Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elm Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUMP & PANTRY #30Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CHS AGRI SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHS AGRI SERVICE CENTER BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GD CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 9N 18W28ADC 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 9N 18W27CC 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MWI ANIMAL HEALTHBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- M & M FEEDERSCAFO · 2.6 mi
- 9N 18W13DBBA1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 8N 18W15DA 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- BRENNAN FARMS AND LIVESTOCKCAFO · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elm Creek'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 Elm Creek.
Total Sites
46
within ~10 miles of Elm Creek
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elm Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elm Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elm Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elm Creek — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (26 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 Elm Creek
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 Elm Creek average
Your land is one point inside Elm Creek
Everything above resolves to Elm Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 445 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 Elm Creek Average
Elm Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Elm Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Elm Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Elm Creek's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elm Creek's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elm Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elm Creek, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elm Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elm Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elm Creek average
How we know this about Elm Creek
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 Elm Creek’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 Elm Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Elm Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elm Creek 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 Elm Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elm Creek typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elm Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elm Creek sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elm Creek?
The federal record around Elm Creek is light — 46 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Elm Creek?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elm Creek's scale — its 5b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elm Creek'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 Elm Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elm Creek's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 445 acres it covers and 46 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elm Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elm Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 46 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elm Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elm Creek's boundary and the 445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elm Creek's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elm Creek's 445 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buffalo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buffalo 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 Buffalo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elm Creek's 445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elm Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 445 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Elm Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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