Hendley, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hendley, 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 Hendley 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 Hendley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hendley — the short answer
Hendley, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 136 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 136 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 Hendley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hendley's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hendley
Each reading below is measured for Hendley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHendley runs about 187 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
MeasuredHendley 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 Hendley is in
Hendley sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hendley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Furnas County.
What Grows in Hendley
Every plant below cleared Hendley's own zone 5b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hendley?
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 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 20 — 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 Hendley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hendley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCARTY FARMS BEAVER CITY, LLCCAFO · 4.8 mi
- BEAVER CITY, CITY OFPFAS · 7.1 mi
- MARGARET WILSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- LOMAX GOLDEN ACRES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- PRO TECH AUTO IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- FURNAS COUNTY INCONVENIENCE CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- CLARK ANDREWSCAFO · 9.2 mi
Measured from Hendley'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 Hendley.
Total Sites
7
within ~10 miles of Hendley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hendley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hendley
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Hendley
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 Hendley average
Your land is one point inside Hendley
Everything above resolves to Hendley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 136 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 Hendley Average
Hendley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hendley
- ●One soil character for all of Hendley
- ●Frost dates read at Hendley's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hendley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hendley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hendley, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hendley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hendley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hendley average
How we know this about Hendley
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 Hendley’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 Hendley
When does frost risk typically end in Hendley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hendley 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 Hendley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hendley typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hendley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hendley sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hendley?
The federal record around Hendley shows 7 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4), the nearest CAFO record about 4.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hendley?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hendley's scale — its 5b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hendley'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 Hendley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hendley's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 136 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hendley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hendley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hendley, the closest CAFO record about 4.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hendley's boundary and the 136 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hendley's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hendley's 136 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Furnas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Furnas 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 Furnas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hendley's 136 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hendley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 136 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 4.8 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 Hendley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaHendley sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides