Burnett, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Burnett, 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 Burnett 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 Burnett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Burnett — the short answer
Burnett, Wisconsin: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 160 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 160 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 5a is Burnett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burnett's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Burnett
Each reading below is measured for Burnett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBurnett runs about 187 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
MeasuredBurnett sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Burnett is in
Burnett sits in the Southeastern Wisconsin Till Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Burnett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dodge County.
What Grows in Burnett
Every plant below cleared Burnett's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Burnett?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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.
Documented around Burnett
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Burnett, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Burnett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Burnett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BURNETT HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BURNETTE RADIATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HELINGS OF BURNETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DG-12/15E/09-0704Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- HANEFELD BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JOHN DEERE HORICON WORKS SWAN ROAD TEST SITEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- TIM FLETCHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KIT-TELL INCCAFO · 2.2 mi
- DON BEHNKE TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TODD KNUTSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- DG-12/14E/25-0229Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- Lycon IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burnett'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 Burnett.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Burnett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Burnett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Burnett, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Burnett — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (363 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Burnett
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 Burnett average
Your land is one point inside Burnett
Everything above resolves to Burnett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 160 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 Burnett Average
Burnett Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Burnett
- ●One soil character for all of Burnett
- ●Frost dates read at Burnett's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burnett's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Burnett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burnett, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burnett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burnett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burnett average
How we know this about Burnett
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 Burnett’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 Burnett
When does frost risk typically end in Burnett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burnett typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Burnett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Burnett typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Burnett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burnett sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burnett?
The federal record around Burnett is a meaningful one — 568 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (363), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Burnett?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Burnett's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burnett'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 Burnett’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Burnett's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 160 acres it covers and 568 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burnett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burnett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 568 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Burnett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Burnett's boundary and the 160 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Burnett's own centroid, the Southeastern Wisconsin Till PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Burnettlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Burnett's 160 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dodge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dodge 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 Dodge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Burnett's 160 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Burnett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 160 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Burnett-wide figureread your own land →
More in Wisconsin
Wider growing context
What grows across WisconsinBurnett sits outside our named growing regions, so Wisconsin as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides