Spalding, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spalding, 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 Spalding 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 Spalding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spalding — the short answer
Spalding, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 205 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 205 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 Spalding's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spalding's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spalding
Each reading below is measured for Spalding itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpalding runs about 177 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
MeasuredSpalding 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 Spalding is in
Spalding sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Spalding's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greeley County.
What Grows in Spalding
Every plant below cleared Spalding's own zone 5b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spalding?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Spalding
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spalding. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEOPLES SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ST. MICHAEL'S PARISH CENTERBrownfields · 350 ft
- MILLER POWER SPORTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 20N 10W23AD 1Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- WLASCHIN CATTLE, LLCCAFO · 3.4 mi
- 20N 8W19CC 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 19N 9W12AB 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 20N 10W 2CC 1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 20N 10W 8BB 1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- 21N 10W32DDCD1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- COUNTRY PARTNERS COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- BONANZA CATTLE COMPANY, LLCCAFO · 8.1 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spalding'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 Spalding.
Total Sites
24
within ~10 miles of Spalding
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spalding
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spalding
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Spalding
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 Spalding average
Your land is one point inside Spalding
Everything above resolves to Spalding as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 205 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 Spalding Average
Spalding Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Spalding
- ●One soil character for all of Spalding
- ●Frost dates read at Spalding's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spalding's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spalding
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spalding, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spalding averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spalding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spalding average
How we know this about Spalding
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 Spalding’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 Spalding
When does frost risk typically end in Spalding?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spalding typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Spalding?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spalding typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spalding?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spalding sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 1, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spalding?
The federal record around Spalding is light — 24 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), 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 Spalding?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spalding's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spalding'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 Spalding’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spalding's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 205 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spalding's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spalding's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 15 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spalding, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spalding's boundary and the 205 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spalding's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spalding's 205 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greeley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greeley 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 Greeley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spalding's 205 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spalding you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 205 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 Spalding-wide figureread your own land →
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