Burwell, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Burwell, 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 Burwell 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 Burwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burwell — the short answer
Burwell, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 671 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 671 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 Burwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burwell's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burwell
Each reading below is measured for Burwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurwell runs about 175 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
MeasuredBurwell 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 Burwell is in
Burwell sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Burwell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Garfield County is mostly Nebraska Sand Hills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Burwell
Every plant below cleared Burwell's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burwell?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Burwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURWELL INDEPENDENT OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LOUP VALLEY MACHINING & MFGBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BURWELL JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ROWSE HYD RAKESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BURWELL FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 2300 ft
- DTs MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ROWSE HYDRAULIC RAKE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PUMP & PANTRY #22Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DADs CALAMUS EASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 21N 16W22DABD1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- M & R CATTLE CO WESTCAFO · 1.4 mi
- TMG FEEDING, LLCCAFO · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burwell'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 Burwell.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Burwell
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
9 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burwell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burwell, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Burwell. 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 Burwell
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 Burwell average
Your land is one point inside Burwell
Everything above resolves to Burwell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 671 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 Burwell Average
Burwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Burwell
- ●One soil character for all of Burwell
- ●Frost dates read at Burwell's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burwell's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burwell, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burwell average
How we know this about Burwell
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 Burwell’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 Burwell
When does frost risk typically end in Burwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burwell typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Burwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burwell typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burwell sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 1, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burwell?
The federal record around Burwell is light — 31 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (11), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Burwell?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burwell's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burwell'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 Burwell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burwell's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 671 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 15 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burwell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burwell's boundary and the 671 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Burwell sits in the Central Great 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 Burwell's 671 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garfield 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 Garfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burwell's 671 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 671 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 Burwell-wide figureread your own land →
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