Burley, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Burley, 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 Burley 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 Burley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burley — the short answer
Burley, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 6b is Burley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burley's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burley
Each reading below is measured for Burley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurley 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
MeasuredBurley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Burley is in
Burley sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Burley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cassia County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Burley
Every plant below cleared Burley's own zone 6b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Burley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENEX LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CR LYNCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- GET IT N'GO TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GEM INT'L INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- USBR BurleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BURLEY DEMOLITION ASBESTOS SITESuperfund · 650 ft
- Union Pacific RR BurleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MCCASLIN LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SOUTHERN IDAHO DIST COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Burley City DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CenturyLink - BurleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CLINE PRESTON ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burley'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 Burley.
Total Sites
453
within ~10 miles of Burley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Burley — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (176 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 Burley
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 Burley average
Your land is one point inside Burley
Everything above resolves to Burley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Burley Average
Burley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Burley
- ●One soil character for all of Burley
- ●Frost dates read at Burley's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burley, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burley average
How we know this about Burley
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 Burley’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 Burley
When does frost risk typically end in Burley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burley typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Burley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burley typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burley sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 2, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burley?
The federal record around Burley is a meaningful one — 453 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (219), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Burley?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burley's scale — its 6b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burley'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 Burley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burley's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,327 acres it covers and 453 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 16 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 453 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burley's boundary and the 4,327 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Burley sits in the Snake River Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burley's 4,327 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cassia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cassia County
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Cassia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burley's 4,327 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,327 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 Burley-wide figureread your own land →
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