Burr Oak, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, hazelnut, lavender, 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, Kansas: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 527 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 527 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 6a is Burr Oak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burr Oak's 192-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 192 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 6a.
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 Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Burr Oak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jewell County.
What Grows in Burr Oak
Every plant below cleared Burr Oak's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas 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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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.
- COSAND AUTOBrownfields · 250 ft
- J & H SERVICE, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- WALKER GRAIN COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 02S 09W 23BAC 01Nitrate · 1600 ft
- DON'S AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 02S 09W 23BCD 01Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 02S 09W 23BAA 01Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 02S 09W 23BAD 01Nitrate · 2200 ft
- 02S 09W 28CBB 01Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- JEWELL COUNTY FEEDERS, LLCCAFO · 4.9 mi
- FAA-TKO VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 02S 10W 12BAB 01Nitrate · 5.7 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.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Burr Oak
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
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 — 42 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 527 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 Burr Oak Average
Burr Oak Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Burr Oak
- ●One soil character for all of Burr Oak
- ●Frost dates read at Burr Oak's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burr Oak's 6a
- ✓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, Kansas — 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 city’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 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 Burr Oak
When does frost risk typically end in Burr Oak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burr Oak typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Burr Oak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burr Oak typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 192 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 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 8, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burr Oak?
The federal record around Burr Oak shows 71 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Brownfields 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 Burr Oak?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. 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 6a band and its 192-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 ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 527 acres it covers and 71 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 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burr Oak's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 22 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burr Oak, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burr Oak's boundary and the 527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burr Oak's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burr Oak's 527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jewell 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 Jewell 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 527 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 527 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Burr Oak-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kansas
Wider growing context
What grows across KansasBurr Oak sits outside our named growing regions, so Kansas as a whole is its closest context here.