Bowbells, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowbells, 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 Bowbells 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 Bowbells — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bowbells — the short answer
Bowbells, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 609 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 609 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 4a is Bowbells's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowbells's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowbells
Each reading below is measured for Bowbells itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBowbells runs about 146 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBowbells sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Bowbells is in
Bowbells sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bowbells's own centroid rather than borrowed from Burke County.
What Grows in Bowbells
Every plant below cleared Bowbells's own zone 4a and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowbells?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Bowbells
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowbells. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 161-089-05AC1Nitrate · 400 ft
- 161-089-05AC2Nitrate · 400 ft
- Farmers Union Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Arts Service and BulkUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 161-089-05ADCNitrate · 850 ft
- 161-089-05ACDNitrate · 850 ft
- 161-089-05DABNitrate · 1300 ft
- North Dakota State Dept of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 161-089-05DD1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 161-089-06DANitrate · 0.9 mi
- 162-089-31DANitrate · 1.1 mi
- Minot Air Force BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowbells'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 Bowbells.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Bowbells
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
64 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowbells
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bowbells, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Bowbells. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bowbells
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 Bowbells average
Your land is one point inside Bowbells
Everything above resolves to Bowbells as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 609 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 Bowbells Average
Bowbells Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Bowbells
- ●One soil character for all of Bowbells
- ●Frost dates read at Bowbells's scale: May 7 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowbells's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowbells
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowbells, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowbells averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowbells — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowbells average
How we know this about Bowbells
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 Bowbells’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 Bowbells
When does frost risk typically end in Bowbells?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowbells typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Bowbells?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowbells typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowbells?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowbells sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 16, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowbells?
The federal record around Bowbells shows 82 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Bowbells?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Bowbells rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Bowbells's scale — its 4a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowbells'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 Bowbells’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bowbells's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 609 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowbells's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bowbells's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Sep 30 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowbells, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowbells's boundary and the 609 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bowbells's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowbells's 609 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Burke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Burke County
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Burke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowbells's 609 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowbells you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 609 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Bowbells-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaBowbells sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.