Broken Bow, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Broken Bow, 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 Broken Bow 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 Broken Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Broken Bow — the short answer
Broken Bow, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Broken Bow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broken Bow's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Broken Bow
Each reading below is measured for Broken Bow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBroken Bow runs about 168 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
MeasuredBroken Bow 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 Broken Bow is in
Broken Bow sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Broken Bow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Custer County.
What Grows in Broken Bow
Every plant below cleared Broken Bow's own zone 5a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Broken Bow?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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 Broken Bow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Broken Bow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROKEN BOW HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BUTLER AMOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE - BROKEN BOWBrownfields · 1400 ft
- 5TH STREET CARD-TROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TROTTERS WHOA & GO EXPRESS IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BROKEN BOW, CITY OFBrownfields · 2200 ft
- SARGENT PIPE COMPANY INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BECTON DICKINSON CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- BECTON DICKINSON CORPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ADAMS LAND & CATTLE OFFICECAFO · 0.5 mi
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1845Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SARGENT IRRIGATION CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Broken Bow'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 Broken Bow.
Total Sites
29
within ~10 miles of Broken Bow
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Broken Bow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Broken Bow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Broken Bow, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Broken Bow. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Broken Bow
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 Broken Bow average
Your land is one point inside Broken Bow
Everything above resolves to Broken Bow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Broken Bow Average
Broken Bow Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Broken Bow
- ●One soil character for all of Broken Bow
- ●Frost dates read at Broken Bow's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broken Bow's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Broken Bow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broken Bow, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broken Bow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broken Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broken Bow average
How we know this about Broken Bow
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 Broken Bow’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 Broken Bow
When does frost risk typically end in Broken Bow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Broken Bow typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Broken Bow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Broken Bow 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 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Broken Bow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Broken Bow sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 29, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Broken Bow?
The federal record around Broken Bow shows 29 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Broken Bow?
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 Broken Bow's scale — its 5a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Broken Bow'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 Broken Bow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Broken Bow's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,293 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broken Bow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Broken Bow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 13 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Broken Bow, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Broken Bow's boundary and the 1,293 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Broken Bow's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Broken Bow's 1,293 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 Broken Bow's 1,293 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Broken Bow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,293 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Broken Bow-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaBroken Bow sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides