Friend, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Friend, 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 Friend 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 Friend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Friend — the short answer
Friend, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 529 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 529 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 Friend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Friend's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Friend
Each reading below is measured for Friend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFriend 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
MeasuredFriend 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 Friend is in
Friend sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Friend's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saline County.
What Grows in Friend
Every plant below cleared Friend'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 Friend?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Friend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Friend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDEE MART 2716 FRIENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FARMERS COOP GAS & OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 8N 2E29ADDD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 8N 2E 5CD 1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 7N 1E15BAC 1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 7N 2E 9AAB 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- FARMERS COOPERATIVE - CORDOVAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- WEBER FEEDYARDS, LLCCAFO · 6.3 mi
- 7N 2E20BAB 1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- HARRE FEED YARDS LLCCAFO · 6.7 mi
- 7N 2E30BAA 1Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- 8N 1W 4DADD1Nitrate · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Friend'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 Friend.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Friend
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Friend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Friend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Friend, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Friend — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (28 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 Friend
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 Friend average
Your land is one point inside Friend
Everything above resolves to Friend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 529 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 Friend Average
Friend Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Friend
- ●One soil character for all of Friend
- ●Frost dates read at Friend's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Friend's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Friend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Friend, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Friend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Friend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Friend average
How we know this about Friend
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 Friend’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 Friend
When does frost risk typically end in Friend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Friend typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Friend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Friend 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Friend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Friend sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 8, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Friend?
The federal record around Friend is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Friend?
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 Friend's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Friend'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 Friend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Friend's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 529 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Friend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Friend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 22 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Friend, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Friend's boundary and the 529 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 Friend's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Friend's 529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saline 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 Saline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Friend's 529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Friend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Friend-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaFriend sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides