Macy, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Macy, 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 Macy 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 Macy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Macy — the short answer
Macy, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5a is Macy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macy's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Macy
Each reading below is measured for Macy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMacy runs about 183 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
MeasuredMacy sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Macy is in
Macy sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Macy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Thurston County.
What Grows in Macy
Every plant below cleared Macy's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Macy?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Macy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Macy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UMOHO NATION PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MACY CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JUMPS FOOD BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WILLIS LEINARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- OMAHA TRIBE RECYCLING CENTERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- 25N 9E16BAAA1 (U-002A)Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 25N 9E17AABB1 (U-002F)Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 25N 9E17BAAA1 (U-002E)Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- MORGAN FEEDLOT LLCCAFO · 5.3 mi
- LIGHTHOUSE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- CIRCLE T FEEDLOTCAFO · 6.2 mi
- PONY EXPRESS ROSALIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Macy'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 Macy.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Macy
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Macy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Macy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Macy, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Macy. 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 Macy
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 Macy average
Your land is one point inside Macy
Everything above resolves to Macy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Macy Average
Macy Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Macy
- ●One soil character for all of Macy
- ●Frost dates read at Macy's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macy's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Macy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macy, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macy average
How we know this about Macy
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 Macy’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 Macy
When does frost risk typically end in Macy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macy typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Macy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Macy typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Macy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macy sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 3, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macy?
The federal record around Macy is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Macy?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Macy's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macy'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 Macy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Macy's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,021 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 17 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Macy, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Macy's boundary and the 1,021 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Macy'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 Macy's 1,021 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Thurston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Thurston 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 Thurston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Macy's 1,021 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Macy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,021 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Macy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaMacy sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.