Bowling Green, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowling Green, 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 Bowling Green 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 Bowling Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bowling Green — the short answer
Bowling Green, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 809 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 809 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Hardee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Bowling Green's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowling Green's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowling Green
Each reading below is measured for Bowling Green itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBowling Green runs about 331 days between hard freezes (read from Hardee County, the closest normal to Bowling Green) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBowling Green sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Bowling Green is in
Bowling Green sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bowling Green's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardee County.
What Grows in Bowling Green
Every plant below cleared Bowling Green's own zone 9b and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowling Green?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Bowling Green
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowling Green. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESCO-AYERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SELLERS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BOWLING GREEN SMALL ENGINE SERVICE INCBrownfields · 450 ft
- ALEXANDER VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CITY OF BOWLING GREEN 738149324244 FLNitrate · 900 ft
- CIRCLE K #7006Brownfields · 900 ft
- 33S25E04738149411 13 NEAR BOWLING GREEN FLNitrate · 950 ft
- M E BROWN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EXXON-MILLER'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CIRCLE K #7203Brownfields · 2300 ft
- BOWLING GREEN QUICK LUBE & AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2300 ft
- GEO FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowling Green'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 Bowling Green.
Total Sites
279
within ~10 miles of Bowling Green
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bowling Green
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowling Green
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 Bowling Green
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 Bowling Green average
Your land is one point inside Bowling Green
Everything above resolves to Bowling Green as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 809 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hardee County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 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 Bowling Green Average
Bowling Green Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bowling Green
- ●One soil character for all of Bowling Green
- ●Frost dates read at Bowling Green's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowling Green's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowling Green
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowling Green, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowling Green averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowling Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowling Green average
How we know this about Bowling Green
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 Hardee County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Bowling Green
When does frost risk typically end in Bowling Green?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowling Green typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 9.
When is the first frost in Bowling Green?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowling Green typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowling Green?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowling Green sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 2, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowling Green?
The federal record around Bowling Green is a meaningful one — 279 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (152), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bowling Green?
From about Nov 16 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 Dec 16 (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 Dec 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bowling Green's scale — its 9b band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowling Green'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 Bowling Green’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bowling Green's own scale — the 809 acres it covers and 279 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowling Green's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 279 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowling Green, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowling Green's boundary and the 809 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bowling Green's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bowling Green has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hardee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowling Green's 809 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardee County
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hardee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowling Green's 809 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowling Green you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 809 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bowling Green-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaBowling Green sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides