Pender, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Pender, 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 Pender 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 Pender — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pender — the short answer
Pender, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 449 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 449 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 Pender's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pender's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pender
Each reading below is measured for Pender itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPender runs about 181 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
MeasuredPender 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 Pender is in
Pender sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pender's own centroid rather than borrowed from Thurston County.
What Grows in Pender
Every plant below cleared Pender's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pender?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Pender
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pender. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENDER COMMUNITY HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FRAZEYs FOOD AND FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PENDER COMMUNITY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PENDER NE TBS 1Brownfields · 2200 ft
- EMERSON MFG / DMD MFGBrownfields · 2300 ft
- EMERSON MFG / DMD MFGToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- PENDER POWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BREITBARTH ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT MFG COToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT MFG COBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RON BRUNS D/B/A RON BRUNS FEEDYARD - EAST PLACECAFO · 1.5 mi
- 25N 6E25DD 1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pender'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 Pender.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Pender
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pender
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pender
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pender, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pender — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (14 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 Pender
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 Pender average
Your land is one point inside Pender
Everything above resolves to Pender as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 449 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 Pender Average
Pender Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Pender
- ●One soil character for all of Pender
- ●Frost dates read at Pender's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pender's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pender
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pender, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pender averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pender — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pender average
How we know this about Pender
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 Pender’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 Pender
When does frost risk typically end in Pender?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pender typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Pender?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pender typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pender?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pender sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 3, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pender?
The federal record around Pender is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pender?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pender's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pender'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 Pender’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pender's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 449 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pender's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pender's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 17 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pender, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pender's boundary and the 449 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pender'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 Pender's 449 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Thurston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Thurston 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 Thurston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pender's 449 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pender you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 449 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pender-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaPender sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.