Bude, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bude, 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 Bude 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 Bude — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bude — the short answer
Bude, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 912 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Franklin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Franklin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Franklin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 912 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 Franklin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bude's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bude's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bude
Each reading below is measured for Bude itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBude runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Franklin County, the closest normal to Bude) — 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
MeasuredBude sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Bude is in
Bude sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bude's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Bude
Every plant below cleared Bude's own zone 8b and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bude?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Bude
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bude. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEXAS EASTERN TRANS LP MP 237.40 FRANKLINBrownfields · 750 ft
- TEXAS EASTERN TRANS LP MP 237.19 FRANKLINBrownfields · 750 ft
- Georgia Pacific CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Hilltop Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Bude TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Sprint Mart #63Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Texaco Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Mannings Barn #100577Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Breakpoint Bude IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Franklin County Bus ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Ashley's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FRANKLIN LUMBER COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bude'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 Bude.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Bude
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bude
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bude
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bude, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Bude. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bude
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 Bude average
Your land is one point inside Bude
Everything above resolves to Bude as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 912 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Franklin County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Bude Average
Bude Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bude
- ●One soil character for all of Bude
- ●Frost dates read at Bude's scale: Feb 17 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bude's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bude
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bude, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bude averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bude — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bude average
How we know this about Bude
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 Franklin 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 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 Bude
When does frost risk typically end in Bude?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bude typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Bude?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bude typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bude?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bude sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 15, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bude?
The federal record around Bude shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Brownfields 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 Bude?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bude's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bude'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 Bude’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bude's own scale — the 912 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bude's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bude, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bude's boundary and the 912 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bude's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bude has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Franklin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bude's 912 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bude's 912 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bude you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 912 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bude-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiBude sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.