Bowlus, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowlus, 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 Bowlus 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 Bowlus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bowlus — the short answer
Bowlus, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 819 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 819 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 4b is Bowlus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowlus's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowlus
Each reading below is measured for Bowlus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBowlus runs about 163 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
MeasuredBowlus sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Bowlus is in
Bowlus sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bowlus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morrison County.
What Grows in Bowlus
Every plant below cleared Bowlus's own zone 4b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowlus?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Bowlus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowlus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 127N30W13BBB 01 KlischNitrate · 550 ft
- D&D REPAIRBrownfields · 750 ft
- Benusa Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Village HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Elmdale GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Psyck MarketsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Formerly Bowlus Super ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Elmdale CreameryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MINNESOTA POWER BLACHARD HYDROBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- Jims Body Shop - BowlusUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- HoldingfordPFAS · 4.2 mi
- ISD 738 Holdingford Public SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowlus'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 Bowlus.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Bowlus
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bowlus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowlus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bowlus, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bowlus — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (54 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 Bowlus
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 Bowlus average
Your land is one point inside Bowlus
Everything above resolves to Bowlus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 819 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 Bowlus Average
Bowlus Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Bowlus
- ●One soil character for all of Bowlus
- ●Frost dates read at Bowlus's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowlus's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowlus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowlus, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowlus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowlus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowlus average
How we know this about Bowlus
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 Bowlus’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 Bowlus
When does frost risk typically end in Bowlus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowlus typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Bowlus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowlus typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowlus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowlus sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 25, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowlus?
The federal record around Bowlus shows 130 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Bowlus?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bowlus's scale — its 4b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowlus'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 Bowlus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bowlus's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 819 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowlus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bowlus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 9 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowlus, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowlus's boundary and the 819 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bowlus's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowlus's 819 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morrison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morrison County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Morrison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowlus's 819 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowlus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 819 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Bowlus-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBowlus sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides