Davenport, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Davenport, 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 Davenport 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 Davenport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Davenport — the short answer
Davenport, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 426 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 426 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 Davenport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Davenport's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Davenport
Each reading below is measured for Davenport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDavenport runs about 196 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
MeasuredDavenport 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 Davenport is in
Davenport sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Davenport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Thayer County.
What Grows in Davenport
Every plant below cleared Davenport's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Davenport?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Davenport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Davenport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRUNING-DAVENPORT MIDDLE SCHBrownfields · 350 ft
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 4N 4W18BD 1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 4N 5W18DAAA1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 3N 4W 2AA 1 CARLETONNitrate · 5.7 mi
- BEAVERS DAIRY, LLCCAFO · 6.5 mi
- 3N 4W15DADA1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 5N 3W32DCDC1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- 5N 6W36CA 1Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- 5N 4W12BC 1Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- LICHTI BROS OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- SHICKLEY PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 8.6 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Davenport'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 Davenport.
Total Sites
25
within ~10 miles of Davenport
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Davenport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Davenport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Davenport, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Davenport. 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 Davenport
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 Davenport average
Your land is one point inside Davenport
Everything above resolves to Davenport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 426 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 Davenport Average
Davenport Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Davenport
- ●One soil character for all of Davenport
- ●Frost dates read at Davenport's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Davenport's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Davenport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Davenport, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Davenport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Davenport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Davenport average
How we know this about Davenport
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 Davenport’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 Davenport
When does frost risk typically end in Davenport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Davenport typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Davenport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Davenport typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Davenport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Davenport sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Davenport?
The federal record around Davenport is light — 25 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Brownfields 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 Davenport?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Davenport's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Davenport'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 Davenport’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Davenport's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 426 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Davenport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Davenport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Davenport, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Davenport's boundary and the 426 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Davenport's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Davenport's 426 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Thayer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Thayer 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 Thayer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Davenport's 426 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Davenport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 426 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Davenport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaDavenport sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.