Wakefield, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wakefield, 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 Wakefield 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 Wakefield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wakefield — the short answer
Wakefield, Nebraska: USDA zone 5a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 680 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 680 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 Wakefield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wakefield's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wakefield
Each reading below is measured for Wakefield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWakefield runs about 176 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
MeasuredWakefield 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 Wakefield is in
Wakefield sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wakefield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dixon County.
What Grows in Wakefield
Every plant below cleared Wakefield's own zone 5a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wakefield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Wakefield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wakefield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD HUMPTY DUMPTY FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CUBBYS WAKEFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 27N 5E32DA 1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- MG WALDBAUM COToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- MG WALDBAUM COBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BROWER CONSTRUCTION CO PLANT 5Brownfields · 1800 ft
- BIG RED FARMSToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- WAYNE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 27N 5E22D 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- HUSKER PRIDE FARMSToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- M G WALDBAUM COBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- M.G. WALDBAUM CO. POULTRY OPERATIONS - WAKEFIELDCAFO · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wakefield'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 Wakefield.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Wakefield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wakefield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wakefield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wakefield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wakefield — CAFO (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Wakefield
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 Wakefield average
Your land is one point inside Wakefield
Everything above resolves to Wakefield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 680 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 Wakefield Average
Wakefield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Wakefield
- ●One soil character for all of Wakefield
- ●Frost dates read at Wakefield's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wakefield's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wakefield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wakefield, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wakefield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wakefield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wakefield average
How we know this about Wakefield
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 Wakefield’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 Wakefield
When does frost risk typically end in Wakefield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wakefield typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Wakefield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wakefield typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wakefield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wakefield sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 1, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wakefield?
The federal record around Wakefield shows 69 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wakefield?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wakefield's scale — its 5a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wakefield'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 Wakefield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wakefield's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 680 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wakefield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wakefield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 15 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wakefield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wakefield's boundary and the 680 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wakefield'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 Wakefield's 680 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dixon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dixon 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 Dixon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wakefield's 680 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wakefield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 680 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wakefield-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaWakefield sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.