Louisville, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Louisville, 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 Louisville 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 Louisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Louisville — the short answer
Louisville, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 426 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 426 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 Louisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Louisville's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Louisville
Each reading below is measured for Louisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLouisville runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLouisville 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 Louisville is in
Louisville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Louisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Louisville
Every plant below cleared Louisville's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Louisville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Louisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Louisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COPPLE CHEVROLET GMC INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- OPPD LOUISVILLE SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TAYLOR QUIK PIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - LOUISVILLE NE #1 TBSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- ASH GROVE CEMENT COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- ASH GROVE CEMENT COMPANYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 12N 11E10BA 1 (P-106)Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 12N 11E16AC 1 (P-100)Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 12N 11E 16 AACD (P-2302)Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- BAYER CROPSCIENCE FARMBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- 12N 12E19BA 1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 12N 12E18CA 1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Louisville'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 Louisville.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of Louisville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Louisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Louisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Louisville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 152 sites within ~10 miles of Louisville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Louisville
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 Louisville average
Your land is one point inside Louisville
Everything above resolves to Louisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 426 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 Louisville Average
Louisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Louisville
- ●One soil character for all of Louisville
- ●Frost dates read at Louisville's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Louisville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Louisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Louisville, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Louisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Louisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Louisville average
How we know this about Louisville
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 Louisville’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 Louisville
When does frost risk typically end in Louisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Louisville typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Louisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Louisville typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Louisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Louisville sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Louisville?
The federal record around Louisville is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (152), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Louisville?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Louisville's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Louisville'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 Louisville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Louisville's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 426 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Louisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Louisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Louisville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Louisville's boundary and the 426 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Louisville'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 Louisville's 426 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Louisville's 426 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Louisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 426 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Louisville-wide figureread your own land →