Pawnee City, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pawnee City, 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 Pawnee City 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 Pawnee City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pawnee City — the short answer
Pawnee City, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 757 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 757 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 6a is Pawnee City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pawnee City's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pawnee City
Each reading below is measured for Pawnee City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPawnee City runs about 199 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
MeasuredPawnee City sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Pawnee City is in
Pawnee City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pawnee City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pawnee County.
What Grows in Pawnee City
Every plant below cleared Pawnee City's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pawnee City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Pawnee City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pawnee City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE #1579Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PAWNEE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 750 ft
- 2N 11E26CCCC1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 2N 12E32BB 1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 1N 10E 1DB 1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- DENs COUNTRY MEATSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- HENRY R. SCHAARDT LIVESTOCKCAFO · 7.3 mi
- SCHAARDT AG. INC.CAFO · 7.3 mi
- FRIEDLY OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- 01S 11E 03AAD 01Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- 01S 12E 06BAB 01Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- 01S 11E 05BBA 01Nitrate · 8.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pawnee City'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 Pawnee City.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Pawnee City
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pawnee City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pawnee City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pawnee City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Pawnee City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pawnee City
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 Pawnee City average
Your land is one point inside Pawnee City
Everything above resolves to Pawnee City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 757 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 Pawnee City Average
Pawnee City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pawnee City
- ●One soil character for all of Pawnee City
- ●Frost dates read at Pawnee City's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pawnee City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pawnee City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pawnee City, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pawnee City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pawnee City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pawnee City average
How we know this about Pawnee City
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 Pawnee City’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 Pawnee City
When does frost risk typically end in Pawnee City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pawnee City typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Pawnee City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pawnee City typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pawnee City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pawnee City sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 9, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pawnee City?
The federal record around Pawnee City is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pawnee City?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pawnee City's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pawnee City'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 Pawnee City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pawnee City's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 757 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pawnee City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pawnee City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 23 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pawnee City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pawnee City's boundary and the 757 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pawnee City'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 Pawnee City's 757 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pawnee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pawnee 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 Pawnee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pawnee City's 757 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pawnee City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 757 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pawnee City-wide figureread your own land →