Farwell, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Farwell, 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 Farwell 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 Farwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Farwell — the short answer
Farwell, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 5b is Farwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farwell's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farwell
Each reading below is measured for Farwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarwell runs about 183 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
MeasuredFarwell sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Farwell is in
Farwell sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Farwell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Howard County.
What Grows in Farwell
Every plant below cleared Farwell's own zone 5b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farwell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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's on the federal record near Farwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14N 11W 6BC 1Nitrate · 300 ft
- LOUP BASIN RECLAMATION DISTRICTBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WINDMILL FEEDERSCAFO · 4.1 mi
- 14N 11W22DD 1 DANNEBROGNitrate · 5.1 mi
- CHARLIES STATION OF ELBA LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 13N 11W 6BD 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- MEYER CATTLE, LLCCAFO · 7.3 mi
- 14N 10W30BA 1Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- 16N 11W30DADA1Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- GARY CHRISTENSENUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- AURORA COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- DANNEBROG COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farwell'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 Farwell.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Farwell
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
7 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farwell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farwell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Farwell — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Farwell
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 Farwell average
Your land is one point inside Farwell
Everything above resolves to Farwell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 Farwell Average
Farwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Farwell
- ●One soil character for all of Farwell
- ●Frost dates read at Farwell's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farwell's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farwell, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farwell average
How we know this about Farwell
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 Farwell’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 Farwell
When does frost risk typically end in Farwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farwell typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Farwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farwell typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farwell sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 3, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farwell?
The federal record around Farwell is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Nitrate 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 Farwell?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farwell's scale — its 5b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farwell'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 Farwell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Farwell's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 17 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farwell, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farwell's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farwell's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Farwell's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farwell's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Farwell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaFarwell sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides