Bourbon, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bourbon, 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 Bourbon 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 Bourbon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bourbon — the short answer
Bourbon, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 856 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 856 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 Bourbon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bourbon's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bourbon
Each reading below is measured for Bourbon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBourbon runs about 209 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBourbon 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 Bourbon is in
Bourbon sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bourbon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Bourbon
Every plant below cleared Bourbon's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bourbon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bourbon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bourbon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 287 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bourbon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bourbon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MATTOX CUSTOMCRAFT INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- #60 BOURBON MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BOURBONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CRAWFORD COUNTY R-I SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- T40N R03W 34CAD1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- RED CAPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BOURBON KLM SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AMOCO SERVICE STATION - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BOURBON ONE STOP SHOP CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BOURBON LAGOONSuperfund · 2200 ft
- T40N R03W 34CCA1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- WILLIAMS PROPERTY (BOURBON RECYCLING)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bourbon'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 Bourbon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bourbon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bourbon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bourbon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bourbon — Mining (33 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bourbon
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 Bourbon average
Your land is one point inside Bourbon
Everything above resolves to Bourbon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 856 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 Bourbon Average
Bourbon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bourbon
- ●One soil character for all of Bourbon
- ●Frost dates read at Bourbon's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bourbon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bourbon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bourbon, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bourbon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bourbon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bourbon average
How we know this about Bourbon
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 Bourbon’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 Bourbon
When does frost risk typically end in Bourbon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bourbon typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Bourbon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bourbon typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bourbon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bourbon sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 15, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bourbon?
The federal record around Bourbon runs heavier than most — 179 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bourbon?
From about Sep 29 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 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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bourbon's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bourbon'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 Bourbon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bourbon's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 856 acres it covers and 179 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bourbon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bourbon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 29 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 179 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bourbon, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bourbon's boundary and the 856 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bourbon's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bourbon checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bourbon's 856 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bourbon's 856 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bourbon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 856 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bourbon-wide figureread your own land →
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