Hemingford, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hemingford, 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 Hemingford 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 Hemingford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hemingford — the short answer
Hemingford, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 435 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 435 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 Hemingford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hemingford's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hemingford
Each reading below is measured for Hemingford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHemingford runs about 168 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
MeasuredHemingford 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 Hemingford is in
Hemingford sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hemingford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Box Butte County.
What Grows in Hemingford
Every plant below cleared Hemingford's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hemingford?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Hemingford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hemingford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOBCAT PITSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- L KEITH SCHUMACHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WESTCO HEMINGFORD C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 26N 49W 6CC 1 HEMINGFORDNitrate · 4.9 mi
- ARLEE PHILLIPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- NEBRASKA DEPT OF ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- J.R. SIMPLOT CO.Brownfields · 9.2 mi
Measured from Hemingford'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 Hemingford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hemingford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hemingford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Hemingford
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 Hemingford average
Your land is one point inside Hemingford
Everything above resolves to Hemingford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 435 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 Hemingford Average
Hemingford Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hemingford
- ●One soil character for all of Hemingford
- ●Frost dates read at Hemingford's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hemingford's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hemingford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hemingford, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hemingford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hemingford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hemingford average
How we know this about Hemingford
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 Hemingford’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 Hemingford
When does frost risk typically end in Hemingford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hemingford typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Hemingford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hemingford typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hemingford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hemingford sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 1, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hemingford?
The federal record around Hemingford is light — 8 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), 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 Hemingford?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hemingford's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hemingford'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 Hemingford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hemingford's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 435 acres it covers and 8 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hemingford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hemingford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 15 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 8 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hemingford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hemingford's boundary and the 435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hemingford's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hemingford's 435 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Box Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Box Butte 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 Box Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hemingford's 435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hemingford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 435 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 Hemingford-wide figureread your own land →