Burke, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burke, 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 Burke 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 Burke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burke — the short answer
Burke, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 7b is Burke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burke's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burke
Each reading below is measured for Burke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurke runs about 231 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
MeasuredBurke sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Burke is in
Burke sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fairfax County.
What Grows in Burke
Every plant below cleared Burke's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burke?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Burke
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Burke, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Burke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #8980Brownfields · 650 ft
- Express StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #1390Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE #1606Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- BURKE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BURKE CTRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Burke Healthcare CemterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BURKE FIRE STATION CO 14Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- K.C. AUTOMOTIVE / BURKE CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BURKE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- USPS - BURKE BRANCH POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MERCH TIRE #1001Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burke'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 Burke.
Total Sites
2,456
within ~10 miles of Burke
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burke
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Burke
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 Burke average
Your land is one point inside Burke
Everything above resolves to Burke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Burke Average
Burke Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Burke
- ●One soil character for all of Burke
- ●Frost dates read at Burke's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burke's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burke, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burke average
How we know this about Burke
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 Burke’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 Burke
When does frost risk typically end in Burke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burke typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Burke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burke typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burke sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 29, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burke?
The federal record around Burke is a meaningful one — 2,456 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,325), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Burke?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burke's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burke'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 Burke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Burke's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,509 acres it covers and 2,456 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 12 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,456 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burke, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burke's boundary and the 5,509 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burke's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Burkelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burke's 5,509 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fairfax County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Fairfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burke's 5,509 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,509 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Burke-wide figureread your own land →