Palisade, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Palisade, 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 Palisade 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 Palisade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palisade — the short answer
Palisade, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 227 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 227 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 Palisade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palisade's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palisade
Each reading below is measured for Palisade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalisade runs about 186 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
MeasuredPalisade 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 Palisade is in
Palisade sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Palisade's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hitchcock County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Palisade
Every plant below cleared Palisade's own zone 5b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palisade?
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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Palisade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palisade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PALISADE COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- EARL SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FLOYD GREELEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- 3N 33W 9BCBB1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- 4N 32W30DCBB2Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 4N 32W30DCBB1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- KUGLER CO FERTILIZER PLANTBrownfields · 8.7 mi
- KUGLER OIL CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 8.7 mi
- KUGLER CO FERTILIZER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 8.7 mi
- 4N 35W 5AADD1Nitrate · 9.4 mi
Measured from Palisade'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 Palisade.
Total Sites
14
within ~10 miles of Palisade
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palisade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palisade
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Palisade
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 Palisade average
Your land is one point inside Palisade
Everything above resolves to Palisade as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 227 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 Palisade Average
Palisade Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Palisade
- ●One soil character for all of Palisade
- ●Frost dates read at Palisade's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palisade's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palisade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palisade, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palisade averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palisade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palisade average
How we know this about Palisade
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 Palisade’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 Palisade
When does frost risk typically end in Palisade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palisade 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 Palisade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palisade typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palisade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palisade sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 6, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palisade?
The federal record around Palisade is light — 14 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Palisade?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palisade's scale — its 5b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palisade'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 Palisade’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palisade's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 227 acres it covers and 14 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palisade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palisade's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 20 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palisade, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palisade's boundary and the 227 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Palisade sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palisade's 227 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hitchcock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hitchcock 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 Hitchcock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palisade's 227 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palisade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 227 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 Palisade-wide figureread your own land →
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