Burlington, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burlington, 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 Burlington 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 Burlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Burlington — the short answer
Burlington, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Burlington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burlington's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Burlington's own 30-year record measures about 183 days between 28°F killing freezes — 33 days shorter than Racine County's ~216. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Burlington's ~183-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burlington
Each reading below is measured for Burlington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurlington runs about 183 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBurlington 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 Burlington is in
Burlington sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burlington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Racine County.
What Grows in Burlington
Every plant below cleared Burlington's own zone 5b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burlington?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Burlington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burlington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5432Brownfields · 300 ft
- RA-03/19E/32-0035Nitrate · 350 ft
- VILLAGE CLEANERSBrownfields · 400 ft
- VORPAGEL SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BURLINGTON FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MASTER MECHANIC MFGUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Associated Milk Producers IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MONARK AUTO SUPPLY INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TOWN OF BURLINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CHRISTOPHER FAIT RETAIL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PAINT LINE SUPPLY CO INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SWATEK SALES CORPBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burlington'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 Burlington.
Total Sites
556
within ~10 miles of Burlington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burlington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burlington
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Burlington
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 Burlington average
Your land is one point inside Burlington
Everything above resolves to Burlington as a whole — and this is a city whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Burlington Average
Burlington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Burlington
- ●One soil character for all of Burlington
- ●Frost dates read at Burlington's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burlington's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burlington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burlington, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burlington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burlington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burlington average
How we know this about Burlington
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 Burlington’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 Burlington
When does frost risk typically end in Burlington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burlington typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Burlington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burlington typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burlington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burlington sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 5, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burlington?
The federal record around Burlington is a meaningful one — 556 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (300), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Burlington?
From about Sep 19 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 Oct 19 (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 Oct 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burlington's scale — its 5b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burlington'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 Burlington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Burlington's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,943 acres it covers and 556 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burlington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burlington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 19 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 556 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burlington, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burlington's boundary and the 4,943 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burlington's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burlington's 4,943 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Racine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Racine County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Racine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burlington's 4,943 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burlington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,943 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Burlington-wide figureread your own land →