Lodgepole, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lodgepole, 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 Lodgepole 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 Lodgepole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lodgepole — the short answer
Lodgepole, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 305 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- 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
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 305 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 Lodgepole's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lodgepole's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lodgepole
Each reading below is measured for Lodgepole itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLodgepole runs about 168 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
MeasuredLodgepole 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 Lodgepole is in
Lodgepole sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lodgepole's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cheyenne County.
What Grows in Lodgepole
Every plant below cleared Lodgepole's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lodgepole?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (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. 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 Lodgepole
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lodgepole. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VILLAGE OF LODGEPOLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FORMER CREEK VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 950 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GLEN BRUNS & SON INC FARM SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- AMERICAN TEL & TEL CO LONG LINESBrownfields · 8.9 mi
- FRENCHMAN VALLEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- HANSEN PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.7 mi
- PUMP & PANTRY #28Underground Storage Tanks · 9.7 mi
- LEPRINO FOODS COToxics Release Inventory · 9.9 mi
- CREEK VALLEY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 9.9 mi
Measured from Lodgepole'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 Lodgepole.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Lodgepole
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lodgepole
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lodgepole
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Lodgepole
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 Lodgepole average
Your land is one point inside Lodgepole
Everything above resolves to Lodgepole as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 305 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 Lodgepole Average
Lodgepole Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lodgepole
- ●One soil character for all of Lodgepole
- ●Frost dates read at Lodgepole's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lodgepole's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lodgepole
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lodgepole, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lodgepole averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lodgepole — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lodgepole average
How we know this about Lodgepole
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 Lodgepole’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 Lodgepole
When does frost risk typically end in Lodgepole?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lodgepole typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Lodgepole?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lodgepole 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 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lodgepole?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lodgepole sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 1, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lodgepole?
The federal record around Lodgepole is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Lodgepole?
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 Lodgepole's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lodgepole'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 Lodgepole’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lodgepole's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 305 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lodgepole's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lodgepole's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 15 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lodgepole, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lodgepole's boundary and the 305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lodgepole's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lodgepole's 305 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 Lodgepole's 305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lodgepole you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 305 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lodgepole-wide figureread your own land →