Yankee Hill, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Yankee Hill, 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 Yankee Hill 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 Yankee Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Yankee Hill — the short answer
Yankee Hill, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- 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 Yankee Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yankee Hill's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yankee Hill
Each reading below is measured for Yankee Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYankee Hill runs about 194 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
MeasuredYankee Hill 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 Yankee Hill is in
Yankee Hill sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Yankee Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Yankee Hill
Every plant below cleared Yankee Hill's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yankee Hill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Yankee Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yankee Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 9N 6E 4DB 1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- YANKEE HILL BRICK & TILE CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- MEDI-WASTE DISPOSAL LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CORNHUSKER STATE INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- LINCOLN PARKS DEPT PIONEERS PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- PACIFIC CAST STONEBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PARPART CORPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 9N 6E 5DD 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 9N 6E 5DD 2Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- GRAIN ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NEBRASKA DEPT OF TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NEBRASKA DEPARTMENT OF ROADSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yankee Hill'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 Yankee Hill.
Total Sites
707
within ~10 miles of Yankee Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yankee Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yankee Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yankee Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Yankee Hill — Toxics Release Inventory (59 sites) and Superfund (11 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Yankee Hill
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 Yankee Hill average
Your land is one point inside Yankee Hill
Everything above resolves to Yankee Hill 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 Yankee Hill Average
Yankee Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Yankee Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Yankee Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Yankee Hill's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yankee Hill's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yankee Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yankee Hill, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yankee Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yankee Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yankee Hill average
How we know this about Yankee Hill
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 Yankee Hill’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 Yankee Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Yankee Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yankee Hill typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Yankee Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yankee Hill typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yankee Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yankee Hill sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 7, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yankee Hill?
The federal record around Yankee Hill is a meaningful one — 707 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (371), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Yankee Hill?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yankee Hill's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yankee Hill'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 Yankee Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yankee Hill's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,198 acres it covers and 707 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yankee Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yankee Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 21 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 707 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yankee Hill, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yankee Hill's boundary and the 2,198 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yankee Hill'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 Yankee Hill's 2,198 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 Yankee Hill's 2,198 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yankee Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,198 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Yankee Hill-wide figureread your own land →