Harvard, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Harvard, 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 Harvard 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 Harvard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harvard — the short answer
Harvard, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 413 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 413 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 Harvard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harvard's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harvard
Each reading below is measured for Harvard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHarvard runs about 195 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
MeasuredHarvard 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 Harvard is in
Harvard sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Harvard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Harvard
Every plant below cleared Harvard's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harvard?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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 Harvard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harvard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARVARD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HARVARD FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- KOOKIES KWIKI (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AURORA COOPERATIVE ELEVATOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 8N 7W23BB 1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 7N 7W 9CC 1Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 8N 7W10DDAA1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- REESON FEEDING, INC.CAFO · 5.1 mi
- UNIVERSITY OF NEBR GREAT PLAINS VETERINARY EDU CENTERBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- HRUSKA MEAT ANIMAL RESEARCH CENTERSuperfund · 6.6 mi
- NAD BURN PIT/YARD DUMP AREASuperfund · 6.9 mi
- NAD (MARC) YARD DUMPSuperfund · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harvard'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 Harvard.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Harvard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harvard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harvard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harvard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Harvard — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Harvard
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 Harvard average
Your land is one point inside Harvard
Everything above resolves to Harvard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 413 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 Harvard Average
Harvard Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Harvard
- ●One soil character for all of Harvard
- ●Frost dates read at Harvard's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harvard's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harvard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harvard, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harvard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harvard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harvard average
How we know this about Harvard
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 Harvard’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 Harvard
When does frost risk typically end in Harvard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harvard typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Harvard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harvard 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harvard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harvard sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 8, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harvard?
The federal record around Harvard is a meaningful one — 38 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Harvard?
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 Harvard's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harvard'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 Harvard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Harvard's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 413 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harvard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Harvard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 22 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harvard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harvard's boundary and the 413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Harvard's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harvard's 413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harvard's 413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harvard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 413 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 Harvard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaHarvard sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides