Burns, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin 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, Oregon: USDA zone 5b, about 117 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~117
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 5b is Burns's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burns's 117-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 117 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBurns sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Burns's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harney County.
What Grows in Burns
Every plant below cleared Burns's own zone 5b and its 117-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon 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 Apr 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Burns
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burns. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMERSKI LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FRANKO #1Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STEVE'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORMER BURNS AIR FORCE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RR - BURNS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- USDA BLM SQUAW BUTTE EXPERIMENTAL RANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BURNS MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- OARD'S SERVICE & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE NO4469Brownfields · 1400 ft
- BURNS FORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- UPS - BURNS (ORBRN)Brownfields · 1800 ft
- BURNS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
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
79
within ~10 miles of Burns
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
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, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Burns. 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 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 2K 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 5b, averaged across Burns
- ●One soil character for all of Burns
- ●Frost dates read at Burns's scale: May 25 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burns's 5b
- ✓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, Oregon — 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 May 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 Jun 15.
When is the first frost in Burns?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burns typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 117 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burns?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burns sees about 117 frost-free days — roughly May 25 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 15 to Sep 5, about 82 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burns?
The federal record around Burns shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Burns?
With about 117 frost-free days between hard freezes, Burns rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 145 to 173 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 25 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Burns's scale — its 5b band and its 117-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 ~117-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,272 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burns's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burns's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 25 and Sep 19 and the ~117-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burns, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burns's boundary and the 2,272 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~117-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burns's own centroid, the Northern Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burns's 2,272 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harney County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harney County
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Harney County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burns's 2,272 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 2,272 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 Burns-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oregon
Wider growing context
What grows across OregonBurns sits outside our named growing regions, so Oregon as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides