Sterling, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sterling, 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 Sterling 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 Sterling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sterling — the short answer
Sterling, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 253 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 253 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 Sterling's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sterling's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sterling
Each reading below is measured for Sterling itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSterling runs about 195 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
MeasuredSterling 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 Sterling is in
Sterling sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sterling's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnson County.
What Grows in Sterling
Every plant below cleared Sterling's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sterling?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Sterling
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sterling. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JET STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 6N 9E 2CD 1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 5N 10E19AB 1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 5N 10E19AB 2Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- ADAMS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- ADAMS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 5N 10E21DD 1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- 5N 10E23D 1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- E ENERGY ADAMS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 9.0 mi
- SUNNY YOLK FARMS INCCAFO · 9.4 mi
- 6N 11E28BB 1Nitrate · 9.6 mi
Measured from Sterling'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 Sterling.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Sterling
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sterling
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sterling
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.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Sterling
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 Sterling average
Your land is one point inside Sterling
Everything above resolves to Sterling as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 253 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 Sterling Average
Sterling Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sterling
- ●One soil character for all of Sterling
- ●Frost dates read at Sterling's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sterling's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sterling
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sterling, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sterling averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sterling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sterling average
How we know this about Sterling
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 Sterling’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 Sterling
When does frost risk typically end in Sterling?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sterling typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Sterling?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sterling 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sterling?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sterling sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 6, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sterling?
The federal record around Sterling is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Sterling?
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 Sterling's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sterling'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 Sterling’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sterling's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 253 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sterling's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sterling's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 20 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sterling, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sterling's boundary and the 253 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sterling'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 Sterling's 253 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sterling's 253 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sterling you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 253 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sterling-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaSterling sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides