Omaha, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Omaha, 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 Omaha 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 Omaha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Omaha — the short answer
Omaha, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 91K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 91K 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 Omaha's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Omaha's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Omaha
Each reading below is measured for Omaha itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOmaha runs about 209 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
MeasuredOmaha 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 Omaha is in
Omaha sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Omaha's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Omaha
Every plant below cleared Omaha's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Omaha?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Omaha
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Omaha. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWEST GASTROINTESTINALBrownfields · 600 ft
- CONTINENTAL PRINT & PHOTO - FORMER SITE OFBrownfields · 600 ft
- HAYNEEDLE BUILDINGBrownfields · 1500 ft
- LEO A DALY CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MIDWEST DERMATOLOGY, P.C.Brownfields · 1700 ft
- ANDERSON'S CONOCOBrownfields · 2200 ft
- METHODIST HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- METHODIST HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHILDREN'S HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HY VEE GAS OMAHA #5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BUCKs AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- REGENCY FASHION COURTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Omaha'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 Omaha.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Omaha
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Omaha
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Omaha, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Omaha — Toxics Release Inventory (126 sites) and Brownfields (868 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Omaha
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 Omaha average
Your land is one point inside Omaha
Everything above resolves to Omaha as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 91K 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 Omaha Average
Omaha Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Omaha
- ●One soil character for all of Omaha
- ●Frost dates read at Omaha's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Omaha's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Omaha
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Omaha, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Omaha averages can't show:
We read public map data around Omaha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Omaha average
How we know this about Omaha
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 Omaha’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 Omaha
When does frost risk typically end in Omaha?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Omaha typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Omaha?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Omaha typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Omaha?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Omaha sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 17, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Omaha?
The federal record around Omaha is a meaningful one — 1,543 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (868), the nearest Brownfields 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 Omaha?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Omaha's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Omaha'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 Omaha’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Omaha's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 91,469 acres it covers and 1,543 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Omaha's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Omaha's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 31 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,543 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Omaha, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Omaha's boundary and the 91,469 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Omaha'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 Omaha's 91,469 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Omaha's 91,469 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Omaha you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 91,469 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Omaha-wide figureread your own land →