Bovill, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bovill, 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 Bovill 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 Bovill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bovill — the short answer
Bovill, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 102 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 102 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 6b is Bovill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bovill's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bovill
Each reading below is measured for Bovill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBovill runs about 136 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBovill sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Bovill is in
Bovill sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Bovill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Latah County.
What Grows in Bovill
Every plant below cleared Bovill's own zone 6b and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bovill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Bovill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bovill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Timberworks, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BOVILL GENERATOR BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LLOYD L HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BOVILL MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Gold Hunter ProspectMining · 4.6 mi
- 40N 01W 21BAC1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- Ruby Creek MineMining · 5.6 mi
- Victoria ProspectMining · 5.6 mi
- Little Echo No 1Mining · 5.7 mi
- Ruby Creek ProspectMining · 5.7 mi
- Old Jackson Tunnel ProspectMining · 6.0 mi
- 40N 01W 20BAC1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bovill'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 Bovill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bovill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bovill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bovill, Mining runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Bovill. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Bovill
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 Bovill average
Your land is one point inside Bovill
Everything above resolves to Bovill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 102 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 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 Bovill Average
Bovill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bovill
- ●One soil character for all of Bovill
- ●Frost dates read at Bovill's scale: May 14 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bovill's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bovill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bovill, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bovill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bovill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bovill average
How we know this about Bovill
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 Bovill’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 Bovill
When does frost risk typically end in Bovill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bovill typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
When is the first frost in Bovill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bovill typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bovill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bovill sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 13, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bovill?
The federal record around Bovill shows 41 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Bovill?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bovill rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bovill's scale — its 6b band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bovill'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 Bovill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bovill's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 102 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bovill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bovill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 27 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bovill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bovill's boundary and the 102 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bovill's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bovill's 102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Latah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Latah County
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Latah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bovill's 102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bovill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bovill-wide figureread your own land →
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