Berwyn, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — 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 Berwyn, 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 Berwyn 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 Berwyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berwyn — the short answer
Berwyn, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 163 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 Berwyn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berwyn's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berwyn
Each reading below is measured for Berwyn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerwyn runs about 169 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
MeasuredBerwyn 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 Berwyn is in
Berwyn sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Berwyn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Custer County.
What Grows in Berwyn
Every plant below cleared Berwyn's own zone 5a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berwyn?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Berwyn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berwyn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADAMS LAND & CATTLE CO EASTCAFO · 6.2 mi
- PUMP & PANTRY #14Underground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- 17N 20W33AAAD1Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- BROKEN BOW, CITY OFPFAS · 7.3 mi
- YANEZ SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1845Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- ADAMS LAND & CATTLE OFFICECAFO · 7.7 mi
- BECTON DICKINSON CORPBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- BECTON DICKINSON CORPToxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
- SARGENT PIPE COMPANY INCBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- SARGENT IRRIGATION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- CUSTERS LAST STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berwyn'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 Berwyn.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Berwyn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berwyn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berwyn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berwyn, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Berwyn. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Berwyn
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 Berwyn average
Your land is one point inside Berwyn
Everything above resolves to Berwyn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 163 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 Berwyn Average
Berwyn Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Berwyn
- ●One soil character for all of Berwyn
- ●Frost dates read at Berwyn's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berwyn's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berwyn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berwyn, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berwyn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berwyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berwyn average
How we know this about Berwyn
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 Berwyn’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 Berwyn
When does frost risk typically end in Berwyn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berwyn typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Berwyn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berwyn typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berwyn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berwyn sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 29, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berwyn?
The federal record around Berwyn shows 28 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest CAFO record about 6.2 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 Berwyn?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Berwyn's scale — its 5a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berwyn'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 Berwyn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Berwyn's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 163 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berwyn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berwyn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 13 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berwyn, the closest CAFO record about 6.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berwyn's boundary and the 163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berwyn's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berwyn's 163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Custer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Custer 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 Custer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berwyn's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berwyn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 6.2 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 Berwyn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaBerwyn sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides