Mound Bayou, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mound Bayou, 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 Mound Bayou 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 Mound Bayou — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mound Bayou — the short answer
Mound Bayou, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 561 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Bolivar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Bolivar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Bolivar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 561 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 Bolivar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Mound Bayou's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mound Bayou's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mound Bayou
Each reading below is measured for Mound Bayou itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMound Bayou runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Bolivar County, the closest normal to Mound Bayou) — 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
MeasuredMound Bayou 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 Mound Bayou is in
Mound Bayou sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mound Bayou's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bolivar County.
What Grows in Mound Bayou
Every plant below cleared Mound Bayou's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mound Bayou?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Mound Bayou
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mound Bayou. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Loney Williams TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Smitty's Fast FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- TradewayUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Charlie WashingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Ishiah PalmerUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- City Of Mound BayouUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Windham Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Windham ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 011E0021 BOLIVARNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 011E0029 BOLIVARNitrate · 2.6 mi
- 011B0126 BOLIVARNitrate · 2.6 mi
- One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mound Bayou'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 Mound Bayou.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Mound Bayou
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mound Bayou
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mound Bayou
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mound Bayou, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mound Bayou — Underground Storage Tanks (119 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mound Bayou
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 Mound Bayou average
Your land is one point inside Mound Bayou
Everything above resolves to Mound Bayou as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 561 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bolivar 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 Mound Bayou Average
Mound Bayou Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mound Bayou
- ●One soil character for all of Mound Bayou
- ●Frost dates read at Mound Bayou's scale: Feb 22 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mound Bayou's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mound Bayou
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mound Bayou, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mound Bayou averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mound Bayou — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mound Bayou average
How we know this about Mound Bayou
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 Bolivar 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 Mound Bayou
When does frost risk typically end in Mound Bayou?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mound Bayou typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Mound Bayou?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mound Bayou typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mound Bayou?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mound Bayou sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 17, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mound Bayou?
The federal record around Mound Bayou is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), 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 Mound Bayou?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mound Bayou's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mound Bayou'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 Mound Bayou’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mound Bayou's own scale — the 561 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mound Bayou's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mound Bayou, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mound Bayou's boundary and the 561 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mound Bayou's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mound Bayou has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bolivar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mound Bayou's 561 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bolivar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bolivar 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 Bolivar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mound Bayou's 561 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mound Bayou you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 561 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 Mound Bayou-wide figureread your own land →
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