Belmar, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Belmar, 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 Belmar 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 Belmar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belmar — the short answer
Belmar, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Belmar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belmar's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belmar
Each reading below is measured for Belmar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelmar 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
MeasuredBelmar 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 Belmar is in
Belmar sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Belmar's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Keith County is mostly High Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Belmar
Every plant below cleared Belmar's own zone 5b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belmar?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Belmar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belmar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JC CEDARVIEWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Js OTTER CREEK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- VANS LAKEVIEW FISHING CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- ADMIRALs COVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- VOGLs LODGE & LUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- NORTH SHORE LODGE GATE 5Underground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- 16N 42W25CACB2Nitrate · 8.1 mi
- 16N 42W25CACB1Nitrate · 8.1 mi
Measured from Belmar'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 Belmar.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belmar
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Belmar
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 Belmar average
Your land is one point inside Belmar
Everything above resolves to Belmar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Belmar Average
Belmar Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Belmar
- ●One soil character for all of Belmar
- ●Frost dates read at Belmar's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belmar's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belmar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belmar, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belmar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belmar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belmar average
How we know this about Belmar
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 Belmar’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 Belmar
When does frost risk typically end in Belmar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belmar typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Belmar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belmar typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belmar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belmar sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 6, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belmar?
The federal record around Belmar is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Belmar?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belmar's scale — its 5b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belmar'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 Belmar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belmar's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,932 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belmar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belmar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 20 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belmar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belmar's boundary and the 2,932 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Belmar sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belmar's 2,932 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Keith County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Keith 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 Keith County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belmar's 2,932 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belmar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,932 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Belmar-wide figureread your own land →
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