Nenzel, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Nenzel, 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 Nenzel 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 Nenzel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nenzel — the short answer
Nenzel, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 199 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 199 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 Nenzel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nenzel's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nenzel
Each reading below is measured for Nenzel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNenzel runs about 160 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
MeasuredNenzel 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 Nenzel is in
Nenzel sits in the Nebraska Sand Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nenzel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cherry County.
What Grows in Nenzel
Every plant below cleared Nenzel's own zone 5a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nenzel?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Nenzel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nenzel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 35N32W 9BABB3Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- 35N32W 9BABB5Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- REX ADAMSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- KILGORE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- CODY OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- 35N32W 3DABNitrate · 7.8 mi
- 35N33W20ABCC3Nitrate · 8.1 mi
- 35N33W20ABCC2Nitrate · 8.1 mi
- 35N33W20ABCCNitrate · 8.1 mi
- 35N31W10CBBCNitrate · 9.5 mi
Measured from Nenzel'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 Nenzel.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nenzel
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Nenzel
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 Nenzel average
Your land is one point inside Nenzel
Everything above resolves to Nenzel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 199 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 Nenzel Average
Nenzel Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Nenzel
- ●One soil character for all of Nenzel
- ●Frost dates read at Nenzel's scale: May 3 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nenzel's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nenzel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nenzel, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nenzel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nenzel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nenzel average
How we know this about Nenzel
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 Nenzel’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 Nenzel
When does frost risk typically end in Nenzel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nenzel typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Nenzel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nenzel typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nenzel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nenzel sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 26, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nenzel?
The federal record around Nenzel is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 7.1 miles 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 Nenzel?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nenzel's scale — its 5a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nenzel'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 Nenzel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nenzel's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 199 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nenzel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nenzel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 10 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nenzel, the closest Nitrate record about 7.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nenzel's boundary and the 199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nenzel's own centroid, the Nebraska Sand HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nenzel's 199 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherry 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 Cherry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nenzel's 199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nenzel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 199 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 7.1 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 Nenzel-wide figureread your own land →
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