Scottsbluff, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Scottsbluff, 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 Scottsbluff 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 Scottsbluff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scottsbluff — the short answer
Scottsbluff, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 5a is Scottsbluff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scottsbluff's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scottsbluff
Each reading below is measured for Scottsbluff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScottsbluff runs about 170 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
MeasuredScottsbluff sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Scottsbluff is in
Scottsbluff sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Scottsbluff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scotts Bluff County.
What Grows in Scottsbluff
Every plant below cleared Scottsbluff's own zone 5a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scottsbluff?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Scottsbluff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scottsbluff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEBRASKA MACHINERY COBrownfields · 400 ft
- 22N 55W23AB 1Nitrate · 850 ft
- HIGH PLAINS FEED YARD, INC.CAFO · 1500 ft
- VALLI HI CAR RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SCOTTSBLUFF WATERING HOLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- STAR-HERALD PUBLISHING CO INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MARVIN BARTELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 14TH STREET AND BROADWAY DRY CLEANERSuperfund · 0.5 mi
- STROM'S INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- GIT N SPLIT #17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J&J AUTOBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAST GAS BY FOOSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scottsbluff'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 Scottsbluff.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Scottsbluff
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scottsbluff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scottsbluff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scottsbluff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scottsbluff — CAFO (11 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Scottsbluff
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 Scottsbluff average
Your land is one point inside Scottsbluff
Everything above resolves to Scottsbluff as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Scottsbluff Average
Scottsbluff Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Scottsbluff
- ●One soil character for all of Scottsbluff
- ●Frost dates read at Scottsbluff's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scottsbluff's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scottsbluff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scottsbluff, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scottsbluff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scottsbluff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scottsbluff average
How we know this about Scottsbluff
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 Scottsbluff’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 Scottsbluff
When does frost risk typically end in Scottsbluff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scottsbluff typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Scottsbluff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scottsbluff typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scottsbluff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scottsbluff sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 28, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scottsbluff?
The federal record around Scottsbluff is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (59), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Scottsbluff?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scottsbluff's scale — its 5a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scottsbluff'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 Scottsbluff’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scottsbluff's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,244 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scottsbluff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scottsbluff's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 12 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scottsbluff, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scottsbluff's boundary and the 4,244 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scottsbluff's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scottsbluff's 4,244 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scotts Bluff County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scottsbluff's 4,244 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scottsbluff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,244 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Scottsbluff-wide figureread your own land →