Bennington, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bennington, 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 Bennington 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 Bennington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bennington — the short answer
Bennington, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 574 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 574 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 6a is Bennington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bennington's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bennington
Each reading below is measured for Bennington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBennington runs about 206 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBennington sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bennington is in
Bennington sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bennington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Bennington
Every plant below cleared Bennington's own zone 6a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bennington?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Bennington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bennington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUBBYS BENNINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BENNINGTON PUBLIC LIVRARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TURNER AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- 16N 11E 9AA 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- NEWPORT LANDING BENNINGTON LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 16N 11E23DCBA1 (U-009)Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- CASEYs GENERAL STORE #3605Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- KNUDSEN OIL & FEED COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- DOUGLAS COUNTY LANDFILLBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- PUBLIC SAFETY TRAINING CENTERBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- 17N 11E 25BAN(U-151)1)Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- GREENWOOD MOTORLINES DBA R&L CARRIERSBrownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bennington'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 Bennington.
Total Sites
405
within ~10 miles of Bennington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bennington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bennington
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •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 Bennington
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 Bennington average
Your land is one point inside Bennington
Everything above resolves to Bennington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 574 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 Bennington Average
Bennington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bennington
- ●One soil character for all of Bennington
- ●Frost dates read at Bennington's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bennington's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bennington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bennington, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bennington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bennington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bennington average
How we know this about Bennington
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 Bennington’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 Bennington
When does frost risk typically end in Bennington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bennington typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bennington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bennington typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bennington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bennington sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 14, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bennington?
The federal record around Bennington is a meaningful one — 405 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (184), 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 Bennington?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bennington's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bennington'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 Bennington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bennington's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 574 acres it covers and 405 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bennington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bennington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 28 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 405 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bennington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bennington's boundary and the 574 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bennington'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 Bennington's 574 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bennington's 574 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bennington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 574 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 Bennington-wide figureread your own land →