Bellwood, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bellwood, 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 Bellwood 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 Bellwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bellwood — the short answer
Bellwood, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 150 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 150 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 Bellwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellwood's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellwood
Each reading below is measured for Bellwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBellwood runs about 189 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
MeasuredBellwood 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 Bellwood is in
Bellwood sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bellwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butler County.
What Grows in Bellwood
Every plant below cleared Bellwood's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellwood?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Bellwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELLWOOD AMPRIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LITTLE PINE RIDGE FEEDYARD INCCAFO · 4.3 mi
- 16N 3E19BC 1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS - COLUMBUS #2 TBSBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- SCHMIT FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- 17N 2E20CDCA1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- VANTAGE CORN PROCESSORS LLCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- VANTAGE CORN PROCESSORS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 6.0 mi
- VIRIDIS CHEMICALBrownfields · 6.1 mi
- ORION CORP OF NEBRASKABrownfields · 6.1 mi
- ORION CORP OF NEBRASKAToxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- MINNESOTA CORN PROCESSORS - COLUMBUS FACILITYBrownfields · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellwood'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 Bellwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bellwood — CAFO (9 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Bellwood
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 Bellwood average
Your land is one point inside Bellwood
Everything above resolves to Bellwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 150 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 Bellwood Average
Bellwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Bellwood
- ●One soil character for all of Bellwood
- ●Frost dates read at Bellwood's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellwood's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellwood, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellwood average
How we know this about Bellwood
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 Bellwood’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 Bellwood
When does frost risk typically end in Bellwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellwood typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Bellwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellwood 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 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellwood sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 4, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellwood?
The federal record around Bellwood is a meaningful one — 191 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bellwood?
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 Bellwood's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellwood'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 Bellwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellwood's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 150 acres it covers and 191 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bellwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 18 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 191 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellwood's boundary and the 150 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellwood's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellwood's 150 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellwood's 150 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 150 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bellwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaBellwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides