Venango, 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.
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 Venango, 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 Venango 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 Venango — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Venango — the short answer
Venango, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 484 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 Venango's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Venango's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Venango
Each reading below is measured for Venango itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVenango runs about 179 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
MeasuredVenango 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 Venango is in
Venango sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Venango's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perkins County.
What Grows in Venango
Every plant below cleared Venango's own zone 5b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Venango?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Venango
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Venango. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VENANGO GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 9N 41W21DDDD1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- Fulscher HerefordsUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 21CAFO · 6.1 mi
- D & L DUDDEN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- SB01004315ADANitrate · 6.8 mi
- 8N 41W18ADDA1Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- HILINE COOPERATIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 116CAFO · 7.6 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 26CAFO · 7.6 mi
- SEABOARD FOODS - FARM 20CAFO · 7.7 mi
- SB01004303DCBNitrate · 8.3 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Venango'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 Venango.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Venango
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Venango
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Venango
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •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.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Venango
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 Venango average
Your land is one point inside Venango
Everything above resolves to Venango as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 484 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 Venango Average
Venango Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Venango
- ●One soil character for all of Venango
- ●Frost dates read at Venango's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Venango's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Venango
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Venango, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Venango averages can't show:
We read public map data around Venango — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Venango average
How we know this about Venango
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 Venango’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 Venango
When does frost risk typically end in Venango?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Venango typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Venango?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Venango 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 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Venango?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Venango sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 4, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Venango?
The federal record around Venango is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Venango?
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 Venango's scale — its 5b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Venango'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 Venango’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Venango's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 484 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Venango's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Venango's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 18 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Venango, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Venango's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Venango's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Venango's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perkins County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perkins 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 Perkins County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Venango's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Venango you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Venango-wide figureread your own land →
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