Burns, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burns, 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 Burns 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 Burns — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burns — the short answer
Burns, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 220 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 220 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 Burns's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burns's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burns
Each reading below is measured for Burns itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurns runs about 219 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBurns 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 Burns is in
Burns sits in the Flint Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Burns's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Burns
Every plant below cleared Burns's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burns?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Burns
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burns. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARLOS TIRE & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- LEE PRINTINGBrownfields · 400 ft
- 22S 05E 33DCC 01Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 22S 05E 33CAA 01Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 22S 05E 33CBD 01Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 22S 05E 33DBB 01Nitrate · 1400 ft
- MID KANSAS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ONE-STOP CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 23S 05E 04CAA 01Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 23S 04E 01ADA 01Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- DANIEL J. UNRUHCAFO · 3.0 mi
- 23S 05E 17DDD 01Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burns'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 Burns.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Burns
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burns
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burns
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burns, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Burns — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (70 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 Burns
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 Burns average
Your land is one point inside Burns
Everything above resolves to Burns as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 220 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 Burns Average
Burns Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Burns
- ●One soil character for all of Burns
- ●Frost dates read at Burns's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burns's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burns
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burns, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burns averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burns — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burns average
How we know this about Burns
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 Burns’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 Burns
When does frost risk typically end in Burns?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burns typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Burns?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burns typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burns?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burns sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 24, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burns?
The federal record around Burns shows 81 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Burns?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burns's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burns'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 Burns’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burns's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 220 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burns's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burns's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 7 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burns, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burns's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burns's own centroid, the Flint HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burns's 220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burns's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burns you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 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 Burns-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasBurns sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.