Tilden, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Tilden, 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 Tilden 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 Tilden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tilden — the short answer
Tilden, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 497 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 497 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 Tilden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tilden's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tilden
Each reading below is measured for Tilden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTilden runs about 176 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
MeasuredTilden 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 Tilden is in
Tilden sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tilden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Tilden
Every plant below cleared Tilden's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tilden?
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 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 14 — 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 Tilden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tilden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TALLGRASS INTERSTATE GAS TRANSMISSION, LLCBrownfields · 800 ft
- QUICK SERVE OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ELKHORN VALLEY EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 1500 ft
- JOSHs SERVICE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- JB MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RANDY FREY LIVESTOCKCAFO · 2.1 mi
- 24N 5W 9BC 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 25N 4W28CC 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 25N 4W28CC 2Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 25N 4W29CABA1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- T-BONE NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- 24N 4W35AD 1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tilden'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 Tilden.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Tilden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tilden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tilden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tilden, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Tilden. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tilden
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 Tilden average
Your land is one point inside Tilden
Everything above resolves to Tilden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 497 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 Tilden Average
Tilden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Tilden
- ●One soil character for all of Tilden
- ●Frost dates read at Tilden's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tilden's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tilden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tilden, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tilden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tilden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tilden average
How we know this about Tilden
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 Tilden’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 Tilden
When does frost risk typically end in Tilden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tilden 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 Tilden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tilden typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tilden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tilden sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 30, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tilden?
The federal record around Tilden is a meaningful one — 41 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Tilden?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tilden's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tilden'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 Tilden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tilden's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 497 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tilden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tilden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 14 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tilden, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tilden's boundary and the 497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tilden'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 Tilden's 497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tilden's 497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tilden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 497 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Tilden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaTilden sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides