Burnet, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burnet, 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 Burnet 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 Burnet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Burnet — the short answer
Burnet, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Burnet County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Burnet County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- Burnet County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Burnet County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Burnet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burnet's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burnet
Each reading below is measured for Burnet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBurnet runs about 281 days between hard freezes (read from Burnet County, the closest normal to Burnet) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBurnet sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Burnet is in
Burnet sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Burnet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Burnet County.
What Grows in Burnet
Every plant below cleared Burnet's own zone 8b and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burnet?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Burnet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burnet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATMI INCToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- ATMI INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BEST STOP 11Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KWIK STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- E-Z STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ROUNDUP FOOD & FUEL 4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- H & R GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- M-M HITCHIN POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HECKMAN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 15860Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DISCOUNT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burnet'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 Burnet.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burnet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burnet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burnet, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Burnet — Mining (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Burnet
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 Burnet average
Your land is one point inside Burnet
Everything above resolves to Burnet as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Burnet County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Burnet Average
Burnet Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Burnet
- ●One soil character for all of Burnet
- ●Frost dates read at Burnet's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burnet's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burnet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burnet, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burnet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burnet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burnet average
How we know this about Burnet
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 Burnet County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Burnet
When does frost risk typically end in Burnet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burnet typically lands around Feb 20, 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 Mar 13.
When is the first frost in Burnet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burnet typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burnet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burnet sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 14, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burnet?
The federal record around Burnet is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Burnet?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burnet's scale — its 8b band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burnet'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 Burnet’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Burnet's own scale — the 6,717 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burnet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burnet, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burnet's boundary and the 6,717 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burnet's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Burnet has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Burnet County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burnet's 6,717 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Burnet County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Burnet County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Burnet County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burnet's 6,717 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burnet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,717 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Burnet-wide figureread your own land →
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