Burleson County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Burleson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Burleson County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Burleson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Burleson County — the short answer
Burleson County, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 422K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 422K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 9a is Burleson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burleson County's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Burleson County
Across a year, Burleson County accumulates about 6,655 growing degree days above 50°F, about 831 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 190 of Texas’s 254 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 593 hours below 45°F, 502 fewer than the Texas middle of 1,095. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Burleson County
Across Burleson County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Padina, Ships, and Zulch are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
32%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Burleson County
The USDA soil survey maps 60% of Burleson County as moderately well drained — but another 38% drains differently: 32% well drained, 3% somewhat excessively drained.
Padina is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Ships (7%) and Zulch (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Burleson County
Each reading below is measured for Burleson County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Burleson County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Burleson County runs about pH 5.8–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBurleson County runs about 299 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBurleson County sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Burleson County is in
Burleson County sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Burleson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Burleson County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 299-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Burleson County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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.
Documented around Burleson County
- monarch butterfly18 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Burleson County
USGS estimates 56,226 lb of Glyphosate on Burleson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (20,512 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (13,417 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Burleson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Burleson County — 234 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Burleson County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Burleson County
Closest first, across Burleson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&SF TIE PROCESSING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BILLY SCHMIDTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CLAY COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BASSLER BASE AND SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- B J SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BURLINGTON NORTHERN SANTA FE RAILYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RURAL AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- J C BREWER EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SOMMERVILLE ICE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- TAVERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BIG CREEK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- JURICA MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burleson County'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 Burleson County.
Total Sites
234
across Burleson County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Burleson County
Severity Distribution
across Burleson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burleson County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 122 sites across Burleson County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Burleson County
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 Burleson County average
Your land is one point inside Burleson County
Everything above resolves to Burleson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 422K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Burleson County Average
Burleson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Burleson County
- ●One soil character for all of Burleson County
- ●Frost dates read at Burleson County's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burleson County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Burleson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burleson County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burleson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burleson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burleson County average
How we know this about Burleson County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Burleson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Burleson County
When does frost risk typically end in Burleson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burleson County typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Burleson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burleson County sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 21, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burleson County?
The federal record around Burleson County is a meaningful one — 234 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
Everything above is measured at Burleson County's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burleson County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Texas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Burleson County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Burleson County's own scale — its own ~299-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 234 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burleson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burleson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~299-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Burleson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 234 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Burleson County's boundary and the 421,812 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Burleson County sitting wholly inside the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Burleson County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Burleson County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Burleson County — the ~299 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burleson County's 421,812 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 234 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Burleson Countyread your own land →