Talmage, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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 Talmage, 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 Talmage 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 Talmage — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Talmage — the short answer
Talmage, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 105 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 105 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 Talmage's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Talmage's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Talmage
Each reading below is measured for Talmage itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTalmage runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTalmage 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 Talmage is in
Talmage sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Talmage's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otoe County.
What Grows in Talmage
Every plant below cleared Talmage's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Talmage?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Talmage
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Talmage. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOELLSTORFF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FARMERS COOP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY L.P.Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- JOHNSON COUNTY CENTRAL MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- TAMY COMPANY INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 7.4 mi
- ATLAS F MISSILE SITE 06Brownfields · 7.5 mi
- 6N 11E10BA 1Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- 6N 11E 4DDDD1 COOKNitrate · 8.4 mi
- 5N 13E 3DA 1Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- CLYDE DRAEGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- RANDY LANDWEHR PROPERTYBrownfields · 9.4 mi
Measured from Talmage'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 Talmage.
Total Sites
14
within ~10 miles of Talmage
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Talmage
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Talmage
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Talmage
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 Talmage average
Your land is one point inside Talmage
Everything above resolves to Talmage as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 105 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 Talmage Average
Talmage Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Talmage
- ●One soil character for all of Talmage
- ●Frost dates read at Talmage's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Talmage's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Talmage
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Talmage, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Talmage averages can't show:
We read public map data around Talmage — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Talmage average
How we know this about Talmage
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 Talmage’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 Talmage
When does frost risk typically end in Talmage?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Talmage typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Talmage?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Talmage typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Talmage?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Talmage sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 9, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Talmage?
The federal record around Talmage is light — 14 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Talmage?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Talmage's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Talmage'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 Talmage’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Talmage's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 105 acres it covers and 14 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Talmage's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Talmage's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 23 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Talmage, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Talmage's boundary and the 105 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Talmage'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 Talmage's 105 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otoe 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 Otoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Talmage's 105 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Talmage you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 105 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Talmage-wide figureread your own land →