Fairbury, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairbury, 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 Fairbury 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 Fairbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairbury — the short answer
Fairbury, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Fairbury's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairbury's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairbury
Each reading below is measured for Fairbury itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairbury runs about 197 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
MeasuredFairbury 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 Fairbury is in
Fairbury sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fairbury's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Fairbury
Every plant below cleared Fairbury's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairbury?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Fairbury
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairbury. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T.O. HAAS TIRE & AUTO #5129Brownfields · 950 ft
- MAATSCHS AMOCO EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KEN CHAPPELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FAIRBURY READINESS CENTERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- WAL-MART 418Brownfields · 1900 ft
- MAATSCH FOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1193Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FAIRBURY JUNIOR-SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PRESTON OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RIVERSIDE CHEV OLDS CAD BUICKBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FAIRBURY MUNICIPAL POWER PLANTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FAIRBURY READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairbury'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 Fairbury.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Fairbury
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairbury
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairbury
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairbury, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fairbury — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fairbury
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 Fairbury average
Your land is one point inside Fairbury
Everything above resolves to Fairbury as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Fairbury Average
Fairbury Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fairbury
- ●One soil character for all of Fairbury
- ●Frost dates read at Fairbury's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairbury's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairbury
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairbury, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairbury averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairbury — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairbury average
How we know this about Fairbury
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 Fairbury’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 Fairbury
When does frost risk typically end in Fairbury?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairbury typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Fairbury?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairbury typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairbury?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairbury sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 8, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairbury?
The federal record around Fairbury shows 36 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (12), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fairbury?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairbury's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairbury'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 Fairbury’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fairbury's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,623 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairbury's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairbury's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 22 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairbury, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairbury's boundary and the 1,623 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairbury's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairbury's 1,623 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairbury's 1,623 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairbury you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,623 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 Fairbury-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaFairbury sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides