Big Bow, Kansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Big Bow, 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 Big Bow 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 Big Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Bow — the short answer
Big Bow, Kansas: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Big Bow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Bow's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Bow
Each reading below is measured for Big Bow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Bow runs about 199 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
MeasuredBig Bow 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 Big Bow is in
Big Bow sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Big Bow's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stanton County.
What Grows in Big Bow
Every plant below cleared Big Bow's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Bow?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Big Bow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Bow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHNSON COOP GRAIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- USD #452Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 29S 39W 02CD 02Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- FIVE STAR WHEAT RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 29S 39W 05CDC 01Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- HELWIG & MANGELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- BP AMERICA PROD CO ULYSSES GAS PLANTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 29S 38W 04CC 01Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- VIRGIL E. JOHNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 29S 39W 24DD 01Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 28S 39W 31BCC 01Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- JULIAN FARMS HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Bow'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 Big Bow.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Big Bow
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Bow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Bow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Bow, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Big Bow — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (68 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Big Bow
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 Big Bow average
Your land is one point inside Big Bow
Everything above resolves to Big Bow as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Big Bow Average
Big Bow Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Big Bow
- ●One soil character for all of Big Bow
- ●Frost dates read at Big Bow's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Bow's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Bow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Bow, Kansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Bow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Bow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Bow average
How we know this about Big Bow
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 Big Bow’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 Big Bow
When does frost risk typically end in Big Bow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Bow typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Big Bow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Bow typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Bow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Bow sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Bow?
The federal record around Big Bow shows 105 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Big Bow?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Bow's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Bow'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 Big Bow’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Bow's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,220 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Bow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Bow's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 27 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Bow, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Bow's boundary and the 3,220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Bow's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Bow's 3,220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stanton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stanton County
- The growing challenges every Kansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Stanton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Bow's 3,220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Bow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,220 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 Big Bow-wide figureread your own land →
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