Franklin, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Franklin, 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 Franklin 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 Franklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Franklin — the short answer
Franklin, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 635 acres of city.
- 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 635 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 Franklin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Franklin's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Franklin
Each reading below is measured for Franklin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFranklin runs about 184 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
MeasuredFranklin 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 Franklin is in
Franklin sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Franklin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Franklin
Every plant below cleared Franklin's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Franklin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 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 Franklin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Franklin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CPI - AMPRIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1595Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STOREBrownfields · 1900 ft
- PITSTOP & SHOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MIDLAND COOP FRANKLIN-ANHYDROUSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CITY OF FRANKLIN RECYCLINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 2N 14W 8DAAA1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- GIDDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 1N 13W 7BB 1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 3N 14W19CCCC1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- IAN JAMES LIVESTOCKCAFO · 8.4 mi
Measured from Franklin'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 Franklin.
Total Sites
14
within ~10 miles of Franklin
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Franklin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Franklin
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Franklin
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 Franklin average
Your land is one point inside Franklin
Everything above resolves to Franklin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 635 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 Franklin Average
Franklin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Franklin
- ●One soil character for all of Franklin
- ●Frost dates read at Franklin's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Franklin's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Franklin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Franklin, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Franklin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Franklin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Franklin average
How we know this about Franklin
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 Franklin’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 Franklin
When does frost risk typically end in Franklin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Franklin 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 Franklin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Franklin 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Franklin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Franklin sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 3, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Franklin?
The federal record around Franklin is light — 14 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), 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 Franklin?
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 Franklin's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Franklin'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 Franklin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Franklin's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 635 acres it covers and 14 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Franklin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Franklin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 17 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Franklin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Franklin's boundary and the 635 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Franklin's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Franklin's 635 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Franklin's 635 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Franklin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 635 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 Franklin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaFranklin sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides