Clarkson, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Clarkson, 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 Clarkson 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 Clarkson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clarkson — the short answer
Clarkson, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 506 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 506 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 Clarkson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarkson's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarkson
Each reading below is measured for Clarkson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClarkson runs about 181 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
MeasuredClarkson 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 Clarkson is in
Clarkson sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Clarkson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colfax County.
What Grows in Clarkson
Every plant below cleared Clarkson's own zone 5b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarkson?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Clarkson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarkson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLARKSON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1200 ft
- FARMERS UNION COOP SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KLUTHE OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOERNEMANN CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GALL FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.5 mi
- MIKE DLOUHY FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.7 mi
- JARETT DOERNEMANNToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- MARK KRATOCHVIL LIVESTOCKCAFO · 2.4 mi
- VALLEY CREEK CATTLE FEEDLOTCAFO · 2.7 mi
- 21N 2E35ABAA1 CNBRLUSCR1 S-11Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- PLATTE VALLEY EQUIPMENT LLCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- DLOUHY FEEDING COMPANY INCCAFO · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarkson'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 Clarkson.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Clarkson
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarkson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarkson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarkson, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Clarkson. 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 Clarkson
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 Clarkson average
Your land is one point inside Clarkson
Everything above resolves to Clarkson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 506 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 Clarkson Average
Clarkson Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Clarkson
- ●One soil character for all of Clarkson
- ●Frost dates read at Clarkson's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarkson's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarkson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarkson, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarkson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarkson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarkson average
How we know this about Clarkson
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 Clarkson’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 Clarkson
When does frost risk typically end in Clarkson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarkson typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Clarkson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarkson typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarkson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarkson sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarkson?
The federal record around Clarkson is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly CAFO entries (19), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Clarkson?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarkson's scale — its 5b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarkson'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 Clarkson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clarkson's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 506 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarkson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clarkson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarkson, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarkson's boundary and the 506 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clarkson'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 Clarkson's 506 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colfax 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 Colfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarkson's 506 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarkson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 506 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 Clarkson-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaClarkson sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.