Wood Lake, 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 Wood Lake, 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 Wood Lake 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 Wood Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wood Lake — the short answer
Wood Lake, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 203 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 203 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 Wood Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wood Lake's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wood Lake
Each reading below is measured for Wood Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWood Lake runs about 172 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
MeasuredWood Lake 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 Wood Lake is in
Wood Lake sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wood Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cherry County.
What Grows in Wood Lake
Every plant below cleared Wood Lake's own zone 5b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wood Lake?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Wood Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wood Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 32N 26W28BB 1Nitrate · 9.1 mi
- 32N 26W29AC 1Nitrate · 9.4 mi
Measured from Wood Lake'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 Wood Lake.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wood Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Wood Lake
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 Wood Lake average
Your land is one point inside Wood Lake
Everything above resolves to Wood Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 203 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 Wood Lake Average
Wood Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wood Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Wood Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Wood Lake's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wood Lake's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wood Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wood Lake, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wood Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wood Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wood Lake average
How we know this about Wood Lake
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 Wood Lake’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 Wood Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Wood Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wood Lake typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Wood Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wood Lake typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wood Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wood Lake sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 1, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wood Lake?
The federal record around Wood Lake is light — 4 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Nitrate record about 9.1 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 Wood Lake?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wood Lake's scale — its 5b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wood Lake'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 Wood Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wood Lake's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 203 acres it covers and 4 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wood Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wood Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 15 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wood Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 9.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wood Lake's boundary and the 203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wood Lake's own centroid, the Nebraska Sand HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wood Lake's 203 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 Wood Lake's 203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wood Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 203 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 9.1 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 Wood Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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