Minatare, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Minatare, 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 Minatare 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 Minatare — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Minatare — the short answer
Minatare, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 280 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 280 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 5a is Minatare's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minatare's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minatare
Each reading below is measured for Minatare itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinatare runs about 169 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
MeasuredMinatare sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Minatare is in
Minatare sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Minatare's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scotts Bluff County.
What Grows in Minatare
Every plant below cleared Minatare's own zone 5a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minatare?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Minatare
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minatare. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY REPAIR INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- 21N 53W 7AAAA4Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 21N 53W 7AAAA1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 21N 53W 7AAAA3Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 21N 53W 7AAAA2Nitrate · 1000 ft
- SHADLE MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SNF INC.Brownfields · 2000 ft
- JON'S SALVAGEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SILVER SPUR FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 0.8 mi
- HARRYS TRUCK STOP & CAFE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- COTTONWOODCAFO · 2.0 mi
- TRIPLE CROWN HOLDINGS, LLCCAFO · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minatare'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 Minatare.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Minatare
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minatare
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minatare
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minatare, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Minatare — CAFO (11 sites) and Superfund (4 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 Minatare
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 Minatare average
Your land is one point inside Minatare
Everything above resolves to Minatare as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 280 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 Minatare Average
Minatare Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Minatare
- ●One soil character for all of Minatare
- ●Frost dates read at Minatare's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minatare's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minatare
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minatare, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minatare averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minatare — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minatare average
How we know this about Minatare
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 Minatare’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 Minatare
When does frost risk typically end in Minatare?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minatare typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Minatare?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minatare typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minatare?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minatare sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 27, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minatare?
The federal record around Minatare is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (52), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Minatare?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Minatare's scale — its 5a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minatare'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 Minatare’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Minatare's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 280 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minatare's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minatare's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 11 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minatare, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minatare's boundary and the 280 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Minatare's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Minatare's 280 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scotts Bluff County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scotts Bluff 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 Scotts Bluff County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Minatare's 280 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minatare you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 280 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Minatare-wide figureread your own land →