Phillips, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Phillips, 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 Phillips 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 Phillips — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Phillips — the short answer
Phillips, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 188 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 188 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 Phillips's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Phillips's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Phillips
Each reading below is measured for Phillips itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhillips runs about 193 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
MeasuredPhillips 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 Phillips is in
Phillips sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Phillips's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Phillips
Every plant below cleared Phillips's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Phillips?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Phillips
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Phillips. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W K OTTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 11N 8W34DC 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 11N 8W14BB 1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 11N 7W18CCCA1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- FJM FARMS, INC.CAFO · 2.8 mi
- 11N 8W 3DD 1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 11N 8W 3CC 1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 11N 8W12AC 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 10N 8W10CCBB1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 12N 8W34DD 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 12N 8W34CC 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 12N 8W35CCB 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Phillips'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 Phillips.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Phillips
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Phillips
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Phillips, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Phillips — Superfund (15 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (31 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Phillips
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 Phillips average
Your land is one point inside Phillips
Everything above resolves to Phillips as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 188 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 Phillips Average
Phillips Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Phillips
- ●One soil character for all of Phillips
- ●Frost dates read at Phillips's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Phillips's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Phillips
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Phillips, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Phillips averages can't show:
We read public map data around Phillips — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Phillips average
How we know this about Phillips
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 Phillips’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 Phillips
When does frost risk typically end in Phillips?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Phillips typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Phillips?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Phillips typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Phillips?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Phillips sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 7, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Phillips?
The federal record around Phillips is a meaningful one — 355 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Phillips?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Phillips's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Phillips'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 Phillips’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Phillips's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 188 acres it covers and 355 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Phillips's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Phillips's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 21 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 355 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Phillips, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Phillips's boundary and the 188 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Phillips's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Phillips's 188 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Phillips's 188 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Phillips you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 188 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Phillips-wide figureread your own land →
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