Danbury, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Danbury, 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 Danbury 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 Danbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Danbury — the short answer
Danbury, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 207 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 207 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 Danbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Danbury's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Danbury
Each reading below is measured for Danbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDanbury runs about 187 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
MeasuredDanbury 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 Danbury is in
Danbury sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Danbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Red Willow County.
What Grows in Danbury
Every plant below cleared Danbury's own zone 6a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Danbury?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Danbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Danbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOUG & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- DAFFER CUSTOM FEEDINGCAFO · 2.0 mi
- 01S 28W 01BBC 01Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- SOUTHWEST FEEDERS - DANBURYCAFO · 6.6 mi
- 01S 28W 27BBA 01Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- 01S 29W 01BBC 01Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- 01S 29W 11BAC 01Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 01S 27W 33DBA 01Nitrate · 8.5 mi
- 02S 27W 04CBB 01Nitrate · 9.2 mi
- 1N 26W11CBBB1Nitrate · 9.4 mi
- 1N 26W11CBBB2Nitrate · 9.4 mi
- 01S 29W 10CDB 01Nitrate · 9.5 mi
Measured from Danbury'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 Danbury.
Total Sites
21
within ~10 miles of Danbury
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Danbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Danbury
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Danbury
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 Danbury average
Your land is one point inside Danbury
Everything above resolves to Danbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 207 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 Danbury Average
Danbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Danbury
- ●One soil character for all of Danbury
- ●Frost dates read at Danbury's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Danbury's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Danbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Danbury, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Danbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Danbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Danbury average
How we know this about Danbury
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 Danbury’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 Danbury
When does frost risk typically end in Danbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Danbury typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Danbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Danbury typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Danbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Danbury sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Danbury?
The federal record around Danbury is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Danbury?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Danbury's scale — its 6a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Danbury'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 Danbury’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Danbury's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 207 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Danbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Danbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Danbury, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Danbury's boundary and the 207 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Danbury's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Danbury's 207 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Red Willow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Red Willow 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 Red Willow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Danbury's 207 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Danbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 207 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Danbury-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaDanbury sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides