Dawson, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dawson, 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 Dawson 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 Dawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dawson — the short answer
Dawson, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 136 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 136 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 Dawson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dawson's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dawson
Each reading below is measured for Dawson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDawson runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDawson 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 Dawson is in
Dawson sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dawson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richardson County.
What Grows in Dawson
Every plant below cleared Dawson's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dawson?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Dawson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dawson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LARRY'S AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 200 ft
- 1N 14E14DD 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 1N 13E12DC 1Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- E & S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- ADM ALLIANCE NUTRITION INCToxics Release Inventory · 6.3 mi
- THE STATION SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- BLECHA 66 SERVICEBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- SAPP BROS PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- TITAN DINERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- VICES STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- DENNIS LOCKARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- STALDER CATTLE CO.CAFO · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dawson'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 Dawson.
Total Sites
26
within ~10 miles of Dawson
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dawson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dawson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dawson, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Dawson. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Dawson
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 Dawson average
Your land is one point inside Dawson
Everything above resolves to Dawson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 136 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 Dawson Average
Dawson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Dawson
- ●One soil character for all of Dawson
- ●Frost dates read at Dawson's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dawson's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dawson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dawson, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dawson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dawson average
How we know this about Dawson
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 Dawson’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 Dawson
When does frost risk typically end in Dawson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Dawson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dawson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dawson sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 9, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dawson?
The federal record around Dawson is light — 26 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 Dawson?
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 Dawson's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dawson'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 Dawson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dawson's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 136 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dawson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dawson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 23 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dawson, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dawson's boundary and the 136 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dawson'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 Dawson's 136 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richardson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richardson 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 Richardson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dawson's 136 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dawson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 136 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 Dawson-wide figureread your own land →