Funk, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Funk, 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 Funk 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 Funk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Funk — the short answer
Funk, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 168 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 168 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 Funk's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Funk's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Funk
Each reading below is measured for Funk itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFunk runs about 192 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
MeasuredFunk 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 Funk is in
Funk sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Funk's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phelps County.
What Grows in Funk
Every plant below cleared Funk's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Funk?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. 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 Funk
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Funk. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANDERSON GARAGEBrownfields · 150 ft
- MR TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- R. D. O. INC FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.7 mi
- 6N 17W18CD 1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- WCG LAND & CATTLE LLCCAFO · 3.6 mi
- 6N 18W13AC 1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 5N 16W 6AC 1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- HOLDREGE AIRPORT AUTHORITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- SPEEDWAY TRASPORTATIONBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- HAWKINS AGBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- 7N 18W35DC 1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- CHS AGRI SERVICE CENTER NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Funk'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 Funk.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Funk
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Funk
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Funk
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Funk, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Funk — CAFO (7 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Funk
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 Funk average
Your land is one point inside Funk
Everything above resolves to Funk as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 168 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 Funk Average
Funk Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Funk
- ●One soil character for all of Funk
- ●Frost dates read at Funk's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Funk's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Funk
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Funk, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Funk averages can't show:
We read public map data around Funk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Funk average
How we know this about Funk
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 Funk’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 Funk
When does frost risk typically end in Funk?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Funk typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Funk?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Funk 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Funk?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Funk sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 9, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Funk?
The federal record around Funk is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Funk?
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 Funk's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Funk'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 Funk’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Funk's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 168 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Funk's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Funk's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 23 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Funk, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Funk's boundary and the 168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Funk's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Funk's 168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phelps County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phelps 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 Phelps County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Funk's 168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Funk you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 168 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 Funk-wide figureread your own land →
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