Brainard, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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 Brainard, 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 Brainard 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 Brainard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Brainard — the short answer
Brainard, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 199 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 199 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 Brainard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brainard's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brainard
Each reading below is measured for Brainard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrainard runs about 192 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
MeasuredBrainard 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 Brainard is in
Brainard sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Brainard's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butler County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brainard
Every plant below cleared Brainard's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brainard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. 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 Brainard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brainard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRAINARD PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CTF SERVICE, INC.Brownfields · 600 ft
- JISA FARMS, INCORPORATEDCAFO · 5.6 mi
- TIMBERLINE ENERGY, LLCBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- TIMBERLINE ENERGY LLCCAFO · 5.9 mi
- CHARLES LAVICKYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- DWIGHT PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- FREMONT STREETSuperfund · 7.2 mi
- FORNEY REPAIR, LLCBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- BRUNO CO-OP ASSOCIATION/ASSOCIATED PROPERTIESSuperfund · 7.5 mi
- DAVID CITY MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- RAY METZNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brainard'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 Brainard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brainard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brainard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brainard, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Brainard. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Brainard
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 Brainard average
Your land is one point inside Brainard
Everything above resolves to Brainard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 199 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 Brainard Average
Brainard Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Brainard
- ●One soil character for all of Brainard
- ●Frost dates read at Brainard's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brainard's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brainard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brainard, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brainard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brainard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brainard average
How we know this about Brainard
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 Brainard’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 Brainard
When does frost risk typically end in Brainard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brainard typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Brainard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brainard 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brainard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brainard sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 6, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brainard?
The federal record around Brainard is a meaningful one — 25 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brainard?
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 Brainard's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brainard'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 Brainard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brainard's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 199 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brainard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brainard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 20 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brainard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brainard's boundary and the 199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brainard sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brainard's 199 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brainard's 199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brainard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 199 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brainard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaBrainard sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides