Benedict, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Benedict, 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 Benedict 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 Benedict — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Benedict — the short answer
Benedict, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 117 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 117 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 Benedict's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benedict's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benedict
Each reading below is measured for Benedict itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenedict 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
MeasuredBenedict 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 Benedict is in
Benedict sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Benedict's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Benedict
Every plant below cleared Benedict's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benedict?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Benedict
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benedict. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTRAL VALLEY AG COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ELVIN REETZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 12N 3W13DB 1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- M FARM INCCAFO · 2.3 mi
- D & B NIENHUESER FARMS, INC.CAFO · 3.3 mi
- YORK FEEDLOT INCCAFO · 3.3 mi
- WRIGHT'S FEEDYARD, INC.CAFO · 3.7 mi
- 12N 3W 8CC 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 11N 3W 4CC 1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 12N 4W13AA 1Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- 13N 2W20BBBC1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 13N 3W29ACA 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benedict'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 Benedict.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benedict
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benedict
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benedict, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Benedict — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (84 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Benedict
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 Benedict average
Your land is one point inside Benedict
Everything above resolves to Benedict as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 117 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 Benedict Average
Benedict Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Benedict
- ●One soil character for all of Benedict
- ●Frost dates read at Benedict's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benedict's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benedict
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benedict, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benedict averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benedict — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benedict average
How we know this about Benedict
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 Benedict’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 Benedict
When does frost risk typically end in Benedict?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benedict typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Benedict?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benedict 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 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benedict?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benedict sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 6, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benedict?
The federal record around Benedict is a meaningful one — 134 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), 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 Benedict?
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 Benedict's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benedict'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 Benedict’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Benedict's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 117 acres it covers and 134 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benedict's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benedict's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 20 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 134 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benedict, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benedict's boundary and the 117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benedict's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Benedict's 117 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benedict's 117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benedict you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 117 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 Benedict-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaBenedict sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides