Benkelman, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Benkelman, 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 Benkelman 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 Benkelman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Benkelman — the short answer
Benkelman, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 767 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 767 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 Benkelman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benkelman's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benkelman
Each reading below is measured for Benkelman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenkelman runs about 180 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
MeasuredBenkelman 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 Benkelman is in
Benkelman sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Benkelman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dundy County.
What Grows in Benkelman
Every plant below cleared Benkelman's own zone 5b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benkelman?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Benkelman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benkelman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUNDY COUNTY STRATTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2100 ft
- HAROLD KNOLES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HELENA AGRI-ENTERPRISES, LLC (DBA HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANY)Brownfields · 2600 ft
- KWIK STOP #24Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- VALLEY FARM INDUSTRIES LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- FRENCHMAN VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 1N 37W31DDAB1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 01S 38W 02DBB 01Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 01S 38W 02CDC 01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 1N 37W 2BBAC1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 01S 38W 09ABB 01Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 1N 38W17BABB1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benkelman'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 Benkelman.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Benkelman
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benkelman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benkelman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benkelman, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Benkelman. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Benkelman
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 Benkelman average
Your land is one point inside Benkelman
Everything above resolves to Benkelman as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 767 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 Benkelman Average
Benkelman Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Benkelman
- ●One soil character for all of Benkelman
- ●Frost dates read at Benkelman's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benkelman's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benkelman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benkelman, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benkelman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benkelman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benkelman average
How we know this about Benkelman
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 Benkelman’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 Benkelman
When does frost risk typically end in Benkelman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benkelman typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Benkelman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benkelman typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benkelman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benkelman sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 3, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benkelman?
The federal record around Benkelman shows 38 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Benkelman?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benkelman's scale — its 5b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benkelman'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 Benkelman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Benkelman's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 767 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benkelman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benkelman's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 17 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benkelman, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benkelman's boundary and the 767 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benkelman's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Benkelman's 767 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dundy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dundy 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 Dundy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benkelman's 767 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benkelman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 767 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Benkelman-wide figureread your own land →
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