Berea, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Berea, 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 Berea 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 Berea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Berea — the short answer
Berea, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 764 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 764 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 5a is Berea's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berea's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berea
Each reading below is measured for Berea itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerea runs about 166 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
MeasuredBerea sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Berea is in
Berea sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Berea's own centroid rather than borrowed from Box Butte County.
What Grows in Berea
Every plant below cleared Berea's own zone 5a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berea?
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 Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Berea
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berea. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J.R. SIMPLOT CO.Brownfields · 2400 ft
- 26N 49W 6CC 1 HEMINGFORDNitrate · 6.0 mi
- 25N 48W12CCA 1 ALLIANCENitrate · 6.9 mi
- ALLIANCE, CITY OFPFAS · 7.6 mi
- 25N 48W27DB 2Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- KCsUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- NEBRASKA DEPT OF ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- WESTCO HEMINGFORD C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- L KEITH SCHUMACHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- BOBCAT PITSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- ERWIN DYE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- 21ST CENTURY EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 9.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berea'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 Berea.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berea
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berea
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berea, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Berea. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Berea
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 Berea average
Your land is one point inside Berea
Everything above resolves to Berea as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 764 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 Berea Average
Berea Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Berea
- ●One soil character for all of Berea
- ●Frost dates read at Berea's scale: May 1 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berea's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berea
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berea, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berea averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berea average
How we know this about Berea
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 Berea’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 Berea
When does frost risk typically end in Berea?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berea typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Berea?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berea typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berea?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berea sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 30, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berea?
The federal record around Berea shows 36 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Berea?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Berea's scale — its 5a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berea'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 Berea’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Berea's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 764 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berea's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berea's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 14 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berea, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berea's boundary and the 764 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berea's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berea's 764 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Box Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Box Butte 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 Box Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berea's 764 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berea you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 764 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Berea-wide figureread your own land →