Burnett County, in Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Burnett County lies within the Northwoods (Northern Wisconsin) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Burnett County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Burnett 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 Burnett County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Burnett County — the short answer
Burnett County, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 526K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 526K 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 4a is Burnett County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Burnett County's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Burnett County
Across a year, Burnett County accumulates about 1,948 growing degree days above 50°F, about 202 fewer than the middle Wisconsin county — ahead of 20 of Wisconsin’s 72 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Burnett County
Across Burnett County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Grayling, Menahga, and Graycalm are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
21%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Burnett County
The USDA soil survey maps 25% of Burnett County as moderately well drained — but another 68% drains differently: 24% excessively drained, 18% very poorly drained.
Grayling is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Menahga (9%) and Graycalm (8%).
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 Burnett County
Each reading below is measured for Burnett 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 Burnett County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Burnett County runs about pH 4.7–5.8, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 21% of Burnett County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBurnett County runs about 156 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
The kind of country Burnett County is in
Burnett County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Lakes and Forests (79%) and North Central Hardwood Forests (22%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Burnett County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Burnett County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 156-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 Wisconsin profile.
Is it too late to plant in Burnett County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Burnett County
- monarch butterfly14 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Burnett County
USGS estimates 30,321 lb of Glyphosate on Burnett County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (9,955 lb) and Metolachlor-s (8,227 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 Burnett County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Burnett County — 302 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site. 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 Burnett 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 Burnett County
Closest first, across Burnett County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J G Jones FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Howard AdlerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- KENNETH HOPKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WEBSTER HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Minit Mart #504Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WAYNES IGAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WEBSTER RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WI DNR WEBSTER RANGER STATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BT-39/16W/08-0006Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Roger C TollanderUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEES SPORT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TOWN OF SAND LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Burnett 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 Burnett County.
Sources Checked
across Burnett County
Severity Distribution
across Burnett County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Burnett 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 Burnett County average
Your land is one point inside Burnett County
Everything above resolves to Burnett County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 526K 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 Burnett County Average
Burnett County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Burnett County
- ●One soil character for all of Burnett County
- ●Frost dates read at Burnett County's scale: May 3 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Burnett County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Burnett County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Burnett County, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Burnett County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Burnett County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Burnett County average
How we know this about Burnett 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 Burnett County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Burnett County
When does frost risk typically end in Burnett County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Burnett County typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Burnett County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Burnett County sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 22, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Burnett County?
The federal record around Burnett County is a meaningful one — 302 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Burnett County's scale — its 4a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Burnett 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 Wisconsin's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Burnett County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Burnett County's own scale — its own ~156-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 302 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Burnett County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Burnett County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Burnett CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 302 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Burnett County's boundary and the 525,821 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Burnett County spans, Northern Lakes and Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Burnett County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Burnett County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Burnett County — the ~156 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 Burnett County's 525,821 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 302 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 Burnett Countyread your own land →