Briarwood Estates, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Briarwood Estates, 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 Briarwood Estates 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 Briarwood Estates — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Briarwood Estates — the short answer
Briarwood Estates, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 435 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 435 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 Briarwood Estates's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Briarwood Estates's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Briarwood Estates
Each reading below is measured for Briarwood Estates itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBriarwood Estates runs about 218 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
MeasuredBriarwood Estates 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 Briarwood Estates is in
Briarwood Estates sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Briarwood Estates's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Briarwood Estates
Every plant below cleared Briarwood Estates's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Briarwood Estates?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Briarwood Estates
Survey cells within 31 miles of Briarwood Estates checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 256 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Briarwood Estates
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Briarwood Estates. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #152Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- FRANK TALBERT FORD INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JEFFERSON SQUARE STANDARD (FORMERLY DESOTO WELLS)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FISHS QUICK STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DESOTO 21 - C-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WALGREENS #10540Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- T40N R04E 34DBC1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- T40N R04E 28ADA1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Unknown - LeadMining · 1.4 mi
- ALEY SIMON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DESOTO MAINTANANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DESOTO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Briarwood Estates'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 Briarwood Estates.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Briarwood Estates
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Briarwood Estates
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Briarwood Estates, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Briarwood Estates — Mining (76 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Briarwood Estates
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 Briarwood Estates average
Your land is one point inside Briarwood Estates
Everything above resolves to Briarwood Estates as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 435 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 Briarwood Estates Average
Briarwood Estates Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Briarwood Estates
- ●One soil character for all of Briarwood Estates
- ●Frost dates read at Briarwood Estates's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Briarwood Estates's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Briarwood Estates
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Briarwood Estates, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Briarwood Estates averages can't show:
We read public map data around Briarwood Estates — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Briarwood Estates average
How we know this about Briarwood Estates
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 Briarwood Estates’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 Briarwood Estates
When does frost risk typically end in Briarwood Estates?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Briarwood Estates typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Briarwood Estates?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Briarwood Estates typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Briarwood Estates?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Briarwood Estates sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 19, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Briarwood Estates?
The federal record around Briarwood Estates runs heavier than most — 247 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Briarwood Estates?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Briarwood Estates's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Briarwood Estates'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 Briarwood Estates’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Briarwood Estates's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 435 acres it covers and 247 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Briarwood Estates's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Briarwood Estates's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 2 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 247 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Briarwood Estates, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Briarwood Estates's boundary and the 435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Briarwood Estates's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Briarwood Estates checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Briarwood Estates's 435 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Briarwood Estates's 435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Briarwood Estates you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 435 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Briarwood Estates-wide figureread your own land →
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