Manley, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Manley, 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 Manley 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 Manley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manley — the short answer
Manley, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 74 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 74 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 6a is Manley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manley's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manley
Each reading below is measured for Manley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManley runs about 207 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
MeasuredManley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Manley is in
Manley sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Manley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Manley
Every plant below cleared Manley's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manley?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Manley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARY OLSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- WESTOVER ROCK & SAND INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HILLTOP FILL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MARTIN MARIETTA MATERIALS INCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- DOKS ENGINE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- STOP N SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- WEEPING WATER COMMUNITY BLDG FOUNDATIONBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- WEEPING WATER EXPRESS LANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- WEEPING WATER PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- PCS PHOSPHATE COMPANY INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- PCS PHOSPHATE COMPANY INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
- PCS PHOSPHATE COMPANY INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manley'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 Manley.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Manley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Manley. 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 Manley
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 Manley average
Your land is one point inside Manley
Everything above resolves to Manley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 74 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 Manley Average
Manley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Manley
- ●One soil character for all of Manley
- ●Frost dates read at Manley's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manley, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manley average
How we know this about Manley
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 Manley’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 Manley
When does frost risk typically end in Manley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manley typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Manley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manley typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manley sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 16, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manley?
The federal record around Manley is a meaningful one — 79 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Manley?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manley's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manley'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 Manley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Manley's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 74 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 30 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manley's boundary and the 74 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manley'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 Manley's 74 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 Manley's 74 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 74 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 Manley-wide figureread your own land →