Valentine, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Valentine, 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 Valentine 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 Valentine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valentine — the short answer
Valentine, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Valentine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valentine's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valentine
Each reading below is measured for Valentine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValentine runs about 163 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
MeasuredValentine 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 Valentine is in
Valentine sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Valentine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cherry County.
What Grows in Valentine
Every plant below cleared Valentine's own zone 5a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valentine?
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 Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Valentine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valentine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REAGLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VALENTINE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2100 ft
- VALENTINE CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #2731Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHELL TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 33N 27W 6AA 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- FARMERS RANCHERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE - VALENTINEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TEHRANI MOTOR COMPANYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SANDHILL OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 33N 28W 1BB 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 34N 28W35BBA 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valentine'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 Valentine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valentine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valentine
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.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Valentine
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 Valentine average
Your land is one point inside Valentine
Everything above resolves to Valentine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Valentine Average
Valentine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Valentine
- ●One soil character for all of Valentine
- ●Frost dates read at Valentine's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valentine's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valentine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valentine, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valentine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valentine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valentine average
How we know this about Valentine
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 Valentine’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 Valentine
When does frost risk typically end in Valentine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valentine typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Valentine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valentine typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valentine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valentine sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 26, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valentine?
The federal record around Valentine is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), 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 Valentine?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valentine's scale — its 5a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valentine'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 Valentine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valentine's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,686 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valentine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valentine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 10 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valentine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valentine's boundary and the 1,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valentine's own centroid, the Nebraska Sand HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valentine's 1,686 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherry 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 Cherry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valentine's 1,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valentine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,686 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 Valentine-wide figureread your own land →
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