Burchard, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burchard, 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 Burchard 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 Burchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burchard — the short answer
Burchard, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 113 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 113 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 6a is Burchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burchard's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burchard
Each reading below is measured for Burchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurchard runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBurchard sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Burchard is in
Burchard sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Burchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pawnee County.
What Grows in Burchard
Every plant below cleared Burchard's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burchard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Burchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEWISTON CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLBrownfields · 7.2 mi
- 3N 8E36BC 1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- 1N 10E 1DB 1Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- FRAZEE FARMSToxics Release Inventory · 9.5 mi
Measured from Burchard'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 Burchard.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Burchard
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burchard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Burchard
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 Burchard average
Your land is one point inside Burchard
Everything above resolves to Burchard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 113 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 Burchard Average
Burchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Burchard
- ●One soil character for all of Burchard
- ●Frost dates read at Burchard's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burchard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burchard, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burchard average
How we know this about Burchard
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 Burchard’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 Burchard
When does frost risk typically end in Burchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burchard typically lands around Apr 7, 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Burchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burchard typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burchard sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 10, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burchard?
The federal record around Burchard is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Brownfields record about 7.2 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 Burchard?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burchard's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burchard'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 Burchard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burchard's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 113 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burchard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 24 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burchard, the closest Brownfields record about 7.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burchard's boundary and the 113 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burchard's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burchard's 113 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pawnee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pawnee 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 Pawnee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burchard's 113 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 113 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 7.2 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 Burchard-wide figureread your own land →