Battle Creek, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, 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 Battle Creek, 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 Battle Creek 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 Battle Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Battle Creek — the short answer
Battle Creek, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 452 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 452 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 Battle Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Battle Creek's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Battle Creek
Each reading below is measured for Battle Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBattle Creek runs about 181 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
MeasuredBattle Creek 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 Battle Creek is in
Battle Creek sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Battle Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Battle Creek
Every plant below cleared Battle Creek's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Battle Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Battle Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Battle Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLENDALE FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- TILLYsUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BATTLE CREEK FARMERS COOP N/SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BATTLE CREEK FARMERS COOP/SOUTH PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HENN HOUSE DAIRYCAFO · 2.9 mi
- 23N 2W 3AB 1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 23N 2W 3ABAA1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 24N 2W22CC 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 24N 3W29BC 1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 24N 2W36AB 1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- BELINA FEEDLOT, LLCCAFO · 5.8 mi
- 24N 3W17CCC 2Nitrate · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Battle Creek'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 Battle Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Battle Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Battle Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Battle Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Battle Creek — CAFO (6 sites) and Superfund (8 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Battle Creek
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 Battle Creek average
Your land is one point inside Battle Creek
Everything above resolves to Battle Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 452 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 Battle Creek Average
Battle Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Battle Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Battle Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Battle Creek's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Battle Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Battle Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Battle Creek, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Battle Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Battle Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Battle Creek average
How we know this about Battle Creek
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 Battle Creek’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 Battle Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Battle Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Battle Creek typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Battle Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Battle Creek typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Battle Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Battle Creek sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Battle Creek?
The federal record around Battle Creek is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Battle Creek?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Battle Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Battle Creek'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 Battle Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Battle Creek's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 452 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Battle Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Battle Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Battle Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Battle Creek's boundary and the 452 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Battle Creek'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 Battle Creek's 452 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Battle Creek's 452 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Battle Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 452 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Battle Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaBattle Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides