Bowman, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowman, 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 Bowman 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 Bowman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bowman — the short answer
Bowman, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 997 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 997 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 8a is Bowman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowman's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowman
Each reading below is measured for Bowman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBowman runs about 258 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
MeasuredBowman sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Bowman is in
Bowman sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bowman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Craighead County.
What Grows in Bowman
Every plant below cleared Bowman's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowman?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Bowman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MSE ENVIRONMENTAL-COLLECTIONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SANDERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RONNIE'S FISH MKT & BAIT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP # 18Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- COLSON CASTER CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- COLSON CASTER CORPORATIONBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- 14N06E27ACB1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- JORDANS #17Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- RISEVER MACHINERY, LLCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- 14N06E34BAD1Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- FMH CONVEYORS AMERICASToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- FMH CONVEYORS AMERICASBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowman'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 Bowman.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Bowman
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
36 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bowman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bowman, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Bowman. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bowman
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 Bowman average
Your land is one point inside Bowman
Everything above resolves to Bowman as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 997 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 Bowman Average
Bowman Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bowman
- ●One soil character for all of Bowman
- ●Frost dates read at Bowman's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowman's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowman, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowman average
How we know this about Bowman
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 Bowman’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 Bowman
When does frost risk typically end in Bowman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowman typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Bowman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowman typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowman sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 9, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowman?
The federal record around Bowman is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bowman?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bowman's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowman'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 Bowman’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bowman's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 997 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bowman's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 23 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowman, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowman's boundary and the 997 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bowman's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowman's 997 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Craighead County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Craighead County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Craighead County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowman's 997 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 997 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Bowman-wide figureread your own land →
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