Broadwater, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Broadwater, 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 Broadwater 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 Broadwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Broadwater — the short answer
Broadwater, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 100 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 100 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 Broadwater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broadwater's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Broadwater
Each reading below is measured for Broadwater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBroadwater runs about 158 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
MeasuredBroadwater 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 Broadwater is in
Broadwater sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Broadwater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morrill County.
What Grows in Broadwater
Every plant below cleared Broadwater's own zone 5a and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Broadwater?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Broadwater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Broadwater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PANHANDLE COOPERATIVE FERTILIZERBrownfields · 750 ft
- BROADWATER COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 19N 48W30BCAD1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- TWO BAR LAND & CATTLE - SOUTHCAFO · 4.3 mi
- CONNIE LAPASEOTES, LTD - LAPASEOTES FEEDLOT BROADWATERCAFO · 5.8 mi
- LAPASEOTES FEEDLOTCAFO · 5.8 mi
- FAESSLER FARMS LTDCAFO · 9.8 mi
- 19N 50W14DDDA1Nitrate · 9.9 mi
- 19N 50W14DDDA2Nitrate · 9.9 mi
- 19N 50W14DDDA3Nitrate · 9.9 mi
- THREE L FARMING & FEEDING, INC.CAFO · 9.9 mi
Measured from Broadwater'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 Broadwater.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Broadwater
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Broadwater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Broadwater
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Broadwater
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 Broadwater average
Your land is one point inside Broadwater
Everything above resolves to Broadwater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 100 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 Broadwater Average
Broadwater Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Broadwater
- ●One soil character for all of Broadwater
- ●Frost dates read at Broadwater's scale: May 2 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broadwater's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Broadwater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broadwater, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broadwater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broadwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broadwater average
How we know this about Broadwater
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 Broadwater’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 Broadwater
When does frost risk typically end in Broadwater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Broadwater typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Broadwater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Broadwater typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Broadwater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Broadwater sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 23, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Broadwater?
The federal record around Broadwater is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Broadwater?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Broadwater's scale — its 5a band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Broadwater'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 Broadwater’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Broadwater's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 100 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broadwater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Broadwater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 7 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Broadwater, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Broadwater's boundary and the 100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Broadwater's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Broadwater's 100 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morrill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morrill 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 Morrill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Broadwater's 100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Broadwater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 100 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Broadwater-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Nearby growing guides