Nehawka, 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.
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 Nehawka, 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 Nehawka 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 Nehawka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nehawka — the short answer
Nehawka, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 157 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 157 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 Nehawka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nehawka's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nehawka
Each reading below is measured for Nehawka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNehawka runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNehawka 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 Nehawka is in
Nehawka sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nehawka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Nehawka
Every plant below cleared Nehawka's own zone 5b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nehawka?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Nehawka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nehawka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEHAWKA FARMERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- JOHNSON GAS N GO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- CONESTOGA JR/SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 6.5 mi
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY LP - NORTH 58TH ROAD RELEASE SITEBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- 9N 13E22CD 1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- PCS PHOSPHATE COMPANY INCToxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
- PCS PHOSPHATE COMPANY INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- PCS PHOSPHATE COMPANY INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 7.8 mi
- 10N 11E12BB 1Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS OPPD CASS COUNTY POWER PLANT METER STATIONBrownfields · 8.0 mi
- BEAVER LAKE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- 75 MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nehawka'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 Nehawka.
Total Sites
25
within ~10 miles of Nehawka
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nehawka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nehawka
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •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.
Check your specific parcel in Nehawka
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 Nehawka average
Your land is one point inside Nehawka
Everything above resolves to Nehawka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 157 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 Nehawka Average
Nehawka Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Nehawka
- ●One soil character for all of Nehawka
- ●Frost dates read at Nehawka's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nehawka's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nehawka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nehawka, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nehawka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nehawka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nehawka average
How we know this about Nehawka
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 Nehawka’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 Nehawka
When does frost risk typically end in Nehawka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nehawka typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Nehawka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nehawka typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nehawka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nehawka sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 11, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nehawka?
The federal record around Nehawka is light — 25 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (9), 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 Nehawka?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nehawka's scale — its 5b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nehawka'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 Nehawka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nehawka's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 157 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nehawka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nehawka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 25 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nehawka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nehawka's boundary and the 157 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nehawka'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 Nehawka's 157 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nehawka's 157 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nehawka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 157 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 Nehawka-wide figureread your own land →