Gurley, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gurley, 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 Gurley 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 Gurley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gurley — the short answer
Gurley, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 132 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- 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 Gurley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gurley's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gurley
Each reading below is measured for Gurley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGurley runs about 170 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
MeasuredGurley 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 Gurley is in
Gurley sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Gurley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cheyenne County.
What Grows in Gurley
Every plant below cleared Gurley's own zone 5b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gurley?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Gurley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gurley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JERRY MCROBERTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 16N 49W19BBB 1 GURLEYNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 15N 50W13DA 1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- PLATTE PIPE LINE COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- SB 01504929CDNitrate · 5.9 mi
- EGGING COMPANYBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- ROBERT POPPENUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- DALTON TOWN BORDER STATIONBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- 15N 50W35AC 1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 15N 50W35ACC 1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 15N 50W35ACC 2Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- PROGRESS RAIL SERVICES CORPBrownfields · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gurley'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 Gurley.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Gurley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gurley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gurley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gurley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Gurley. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gurley
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 Gurley average
Your land is one point inside Gurley
Everything above resolves to Gurley 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 Gurley Average
Gurley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Gurley
- ●One soil character for all of Gurley
- ●Frost dates read at Gurley's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gurley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gurley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gurley, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gurley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gurley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gurley average
How we know this about Gurley
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 Gurley’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 Gurley
When does frost risk typically end in Gurley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gurley typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Gurley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gurley typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gurley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gurley sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 1, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gurley?
The federal record around Gurley is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gurley?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gurley's scale — its 5b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gurley'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 Gurley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gurley's own scale — its own ~170-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
- Gurley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gurley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 15 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gurley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gurley's boundary and the 132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gurley's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gurley's 132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cheyenne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cheyenne 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 Cheyenne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gurley's 132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gurley 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 Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gurley-wide figureread your own land →