Burr Oak, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Burr Oak, 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 Burr Oak 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 Burr Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burr Oak — the short answer
Burr Oak, Iowa: USDA zone 4b, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 442 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 442 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 4b is Burr Oak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burr Oak's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burr Oak
Each reading below is measured for Burr Oak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurr Oak runs about 170 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
MeasuredBurr Oak sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Burr Oak is in
Burr Oak sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burr Oak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Winneshiek County.
What Grows in Burr Oak
Every plant below cleared Burr Oak's own zone 4b and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burr Oak?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Burr Oak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burr Oak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE COUNTRY EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NORTH WINNESHIEK SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- NORTH WINNESHIEK COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 236933Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 225997Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 100N09W19BDA 23102 1972Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 147371Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- 101N09W29AAA 01 0000225999Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 101258Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- Canton Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- MABEL CANTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- 156855Nitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burr Oak'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 Burr Oak.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burr Oak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burr Oak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burr Oak, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Burr Oak. 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 Burr Oak
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 Burr Oak average
Your land is one point inside Burr Oak
Everything above resolves to Burr Oak as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 442 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 Burr Oak Average
Burr Oak Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Burr Oak
- ●One soil character for all of Burr Oak
- ●Frost dates read at Burr Oak's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burr Oak's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burr Oak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burr Oak, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burr Oak averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burr Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burr Oak average
How we know this about Burr Oak
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 Burr Oak’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 Burr Oak
When does frost risk typically end in Burr Oak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burr Oak typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Burr Oak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burr Oak typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burr Oak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burr Oak sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 28, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burr Oak?
The federal record around Burr Oak shows 68 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Burr Oak?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burr Oak's scale — its 4b band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burr Oak'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 Burr Oak’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burr Oak's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 442 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burr Oak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burr Oak's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 12 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burr Oak, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burr Oak's boundary and the 442 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burr Oak's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burr Oak's 442 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Winneshiek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Winneshiek County
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Winneshiek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burr Oak's 442 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burr Oak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 442 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Burr Oak-wide figureread your own land →
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