Herman, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Herman, 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 Herman 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 Herman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Herman — the short answer
Herman, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 92 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 92 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 Herman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Herman's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Herman
Each reading below is measured for Herman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHerman runs about 198 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
MeasuredHerman 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 Herman is in
Herman sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Herman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Herman
Every plant below cleared Herman's own zone 5b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Herman?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Herman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Herman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRODUCT RECOVERY & RECYCLINGBrownfields · 700 ft
- 20N 11E30DCAA1 (M-008)Nitrate · 800 ft
- PECK MANUFACTURING COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 20N 10E23DDAA1 (D-006)Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 20N 10E13ABAA1 (D-041)Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- V-HANSEN LAND & CATTLE COCAFO · 3.7 mi
- 20N 11E 25DA (U-236)Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 20N 11E17DD (M-212)Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 20N 11E 4ACBA1 (M-030)Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 20N 10E 1BA (U-230)Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 19N 10E 15DA (U-148)Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 21N 10E 36DB (M-242)Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Herman'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 Herman.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Herman
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Herman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Herman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Herman, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Herman — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (50 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 Herman
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 Herman average
Your land is one point inside Herman
Everything above resolves to Herman as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 92 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 Herman Average
Herman Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Herman
- ●One soil character for all of Herman
- ●Frost dates read at Herman's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Herman's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Herman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Herman, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Herman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Herman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Herman average
How we know this about Herman
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 Herman’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 Herman
When does frost risk typically end in Herman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Herman 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 Herman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Herman typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Herman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Herman sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 10, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Herman?
The federal record around Herman shows 73 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Herman?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Herman's scale — its 5b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Herman'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 Herman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Herman's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 92 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Herman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Herman's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 24 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Herman, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Herman's boundary and the 92 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Herman's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Herman's 92 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Herman's 92 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Herman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 92 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Herman-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaHerman sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides