Nebraska City, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nebraska City, 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 Nebraska City 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 Nebraska City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nebraska City — the short answer
Nebraska City, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Nebraska City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nebraska City's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nebraska City
Each reading below is measured for Nebraska City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNebraska City runs about 206 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
MeasuredNebraska City 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 Nebraska City is in
Nebraska City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nebraska City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otoe County.
What Grows in Nebraska City
Every plant below cleared Nebraska City's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nebraska City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 29 — 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 Nebraska City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nebraska City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARBOR MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SPEEDEE MART 2727 NEBRASKA CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- QUIK PIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NEBRASKA CITY MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- TAGS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KWIK SHOP #649Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PANTORIUM CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HAVERTYs TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 262Brownfields · 1700 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1817Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CONCRETE INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- EXCEL SPECIALTY PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nebraska City'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 Nebraska City.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Nebraska City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nebraska City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nebraska City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nebraska City, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Nebraska City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Nebraska City
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 Nebraska City average
Your land is one point inside Nebraska City
Everything above resolves to Nebraska City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Nebraska City Average
Nebraska City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Nebraska City
- ●One soil character for all of Nebraska City
- ●Frost dates read at Nebraska City's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nebraska City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nebraska City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nebraska City, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nebraska City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nebraska City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nebraska City average
How we know this about Nebraska City
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 Nebraska City’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 Nebraska City
When does frost risk typically end in Nebraska City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nebraska City 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 Nebraska City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nebraska City typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nebraska City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nebraska City sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nebraska City?
The federal record around Nebraska City shows 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Nebraska City?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nebraska City's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nebraska City'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 Nebraska City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nebraska City's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,183 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nebraska City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nebraska City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nebraska City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nebraska City's boundary and the 3,183 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nebraska City'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 Nebraska City's 3,183 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otoe 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 Otoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nebraska City's 3,183 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nebraska City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,183 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nebraska City-wide figureread your own land →