Walton, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Walton, 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 Walton 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 Walton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Walton — the short answer
Walton, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6a is Walton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walton's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walton
Each reading below is measured for Walton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWalton runs about 198 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
MeasuredWalton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Walton is in
Walton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Walton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Walton
Every plant below cleared Walton's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Walton?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Walton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARKER-HANNIFIN CORP.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- PARKER HANNIFIN CORPBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- PARKER HANNIFIN CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- SOUTHEAST COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- MESSIAH LUTHERAN CHURCH & SCHLBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- WINDSTREAM NEBRASKA CSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- STATE FARM INSURANCE COBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- RUSSWOOD CHRYSLERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- U STOP SHOP #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 10N 7E13BD 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- U-STOP #26Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- HY VEE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walton'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 Walton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Walton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Walton — Toxics Release Inventory (56 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Walton
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 Walton average
Your land is one point inside Walton
Everything above resolves to Walton 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 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 Walton Average
Walton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Walton
- ●One soil character for all of Walton
- ●Frost dates read at Walton's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walton, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walton average
How we know this about Walton
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 Walton’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 Walton
When does frost risk typically end in Walton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walton typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Walton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walton typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walton sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 10, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walton?
The federal record around Walton is a meaningful one — 655 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (352), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.8 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 Walton?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Walton's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walton'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 Walton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Walton's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,217 acres it covers and 655 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 24 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 655 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walton, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walton's boundary and the 2,217 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Walton'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 Walton's 2,217 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walton's 2,217 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,217 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.8 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 Walton-wide figureread your own land →