Ulysses, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Ulysses, 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 Ulysses 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 Ulysses — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ulysses — the short answer
Ulysses, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 139 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 139 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 Ulysses's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ulysses's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ulysses
Each reading below is measured for Ulysses itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUlysses runs about 189 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
MeasuredUlysses 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 Ulysses is in
Ulysses sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ulysses's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butler County.
What Grows in Ulysses
Every plant below cleared Ulysses's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ulysses?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Ulysses
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ulysses. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRONTIER COOPERATIVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- JISA FARMS, INCORPORATEDCAFO · 7.9 mi
- 13N 1W25DAAD1Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- 13N 1E18BCCC1Nitrate · 8.8 mi
- JOHN GRAFF ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
- DWIGHT PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.7 mi
- CHARLES LAVICKYUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.7 mi
- SEWARD COUNTY HWY DEPT/MISSLE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
Measured from Ulysses'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 Ulysses.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Ulysses
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ulysses
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ulysses
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •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.
Check your specific parcel in Ulysses
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 Ulysses average
Your land is one point inside Ulysses
Everything above resolves to Ulysses as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 139 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 Ulysses Average
Ulysses Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ulysses
- ●One soil character for all of Ulysses
- ●Frost dates read at Ulysses's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ulysses's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ulysses
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ulysses, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ulysses averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ulysses — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ulysses average
How we know this about Ulysses
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 Ulysses’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 Ulysses
When does frost risk typically end in Ulysses?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ulysses typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Ulysses?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ulysses typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ulysses?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ulysses sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 4, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ulysses?
The federal record around Ulysses is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.5 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 Ulysses?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ulysses's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ulysses'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 Ulysses’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ulysses's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 139 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ulysses's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ulysses's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 18 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ulysses, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ulysses's boundary and the 139 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ulysses's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ulysses's 139 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ulysses's 139 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ulysses you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 139 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.5 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 Ulysses-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaUlysses sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides