Box Butte County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Box Butte County lies within the Nebraska Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Box Butte County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Box Butte County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Box Butte County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Box Butte County — the short answer
Box Butte County, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 688K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 688K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Box Butte County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Box Butte County's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Box Butte County
Across a year, Box Butte County accumulates about 2,292 growing degree days above 50°F, about 548 fewer than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of 2 of Nebraska’s 93 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Box Butte County
Across Box Butte County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Alliance, Keith, and Creighton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.9–7.3, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Box Butte County
The USDA soil survey maps 78% of Box Butte County as well drained — but another 22% drains differently: 12% excessively drained, 4% moderately well drained.
Alliance is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Keith (8%) and Creighton (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Box Butte County
Each reading below is measured for Box Butte County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Box Butte County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Box Butte County runs about pH 6.9–7.3, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBox Butte County runs about 162 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
MeasuredBox Butte County 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 Box Butte County is in
Box Butte County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (82%) and Nebraska Sand Hills (18%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Box Butte County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Box Butte County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 162-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Box Butte County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 11 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Box Butte County
USGS estimates 264,872 lb of Glyphosate on Box Butte County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (82,443 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (48,153 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Box Butte County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Box Butte County — 58 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Box Butte County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Box Butte County
Closest first, across Box Butte County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 26N 49W 6CC 1 HEMINGFORDNitrate · 2.8 mi
- J.R. SIMPLOT CO.Brownfields · 5.5 mi
- L KEITH SCHUMACHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- WESTCO HEMINGFORD C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- BOBCAT PITSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- ERWIN DYE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- ARLEE PHILLIPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
- FRANK DYEUnderground Storage Tanks · 10.2 mi
- 25N 48W27DB 2Nitrate · 11.1 mi
- JIM DYEUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.1 mi
- 25N 48W12CCA 1 ALLIANCENitrate · 11.3 mi
- ALLIANCE, CITY OFPFAS · 11.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Box Butte County'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 Box Butte County.
Total Sites
58
across Box Butte County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Box Butte County
Severity Distribution
across Box Butte County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Box Butte County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites across Box Butte County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Box Butte County
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 Box Butte County average
Your land is one point inside Box Butte County
Everything above resolves to Box Butte County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 688K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Box Butte County Average
Box Butte County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Box Butte County
- ●One soil character for all of Box Butte County
- ●Frost dates read at Box Butte County's scale: May 2 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Box Butte County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Box Butte County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Box Butte County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Box Butte County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Box Butte County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Box Butte County average
How we know this about Box Butte County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Box Butte County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Box Butte County
When does frost risk typically end in Box Butte County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Box Butte County 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.
How long is the growing season in Box Butte County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Box Butte County sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 27, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Box Butte County?
The federal record around Box Butte County is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Box Butte County's scale — its 5a band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Box Butte County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Nebraska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Box Butte County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Box Butte County's own scale — its own ~162-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 58 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Box Butte County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Box Butte County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Box Butte CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 58 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Box Butte County's boundary and the 688,148 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Box Butte County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Box Butte County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Box Butte County — the ~162 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Box Butte County's 688,148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 58 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Box Butte Countyread your own land →