Burnsville, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Burnsville, 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 Burnsville 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 Burnsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burnsville — the short answer
Burnsville, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Burnsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burnsville's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burnsville
Each reading below is measured for Burnsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurnsville runs about 191 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
MeasuredBurnsville 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 Burnsville is in
Burnsville sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burnsville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dakota County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Burnsville
Every plant below cleared Burnsville's own zone 5a and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burnsville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Burnsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burnsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- City Of Burnsville/old Maint FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Burnsville city ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OLYMPIC PAINTERS INC - BURNSVILLEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- RAVEN HILL APARTMENTS - BURNSVILLEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BURNSVILLE PARK DEPTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BURNSVILLE FAMILY PHYSICIANSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SAILER CHIROPRACTIC CENTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CLOVER CLEANERS PARKWAY INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MINNESOTA ALLERGY & ASTHMA CLINIC PABrownfields · 2400 ft
- Gateway Stop N GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Burnsville Parkway BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BURNSVILLE PARKWAY BPBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burnsville'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 Burnsville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burnsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burnsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burnsville, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,795 sites within ~10 miles of Burnsville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Burnsville
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 Burnsville average
Your land is one point inside Burnsville
Everything above resolves to Burnsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 Burnsville Average
Burnsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Burnsville
- ●One soil character for all of Burnsville
- ●Frost dates read at Burnsville's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burnsville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burnsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burnsville, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burnsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burnsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burnsville average
How we know this about Burnsville
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 Burnsville’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 Burnsville
When does frost risk typically end in Burnsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burnsville typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Burnsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burnsville typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burnsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burnsville sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 9, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burnsville?
The federal record around Burnsville runs heavier than most — 4,984 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,795), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Burnsville?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burnsville's scale — its 5a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burnsville'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 Burnsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burnsville's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,960 acres it covers and 4,984 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burnsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burnsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 23 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,984 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burnsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burnsville's boundary and the 15,960 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Burnsville sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burnsville's 15,960 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dakota County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Dakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burnsville's 15,960 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burnsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,960 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 Burnsville-wide figureread your own land →
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