Bowdon, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowdon, 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 Bowdon 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 Bowdon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bowdon — the short answer
Bowdon, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 161 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 Bowdon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowdon's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowdon
Each reading below is measured for Bowdon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBowdon runs about 157 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
MeasuredBowdon 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 Bowdon is in
Bowdon sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bowdon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wells County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bowdon
Every plant below cleared Bowdon's own zone 4a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowdon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Bowdon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowdon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kotaco Fuel & PropaneUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- The DuckUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Jones Hardware IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 146-071-15BBBNitrate · 950 ft
- Bowdon Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 146-071-04AAANitrate · 2.1 mi
- 146-070-30BAANitrate · 3.7 mi
- 146-072-12BBDNitrate · 4.1 mi
- Chaseley Garage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- 145-070-08DCCNitrate · 6.5 mi
- 147-070-18DADNitrate · 6.5 mi
- 145-072-10AAANitrate · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowdon'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 Bowdon.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Bowdon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
42 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowdon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bowdon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Bowdon. 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 Bowdon
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 Bowdon average
Your land is one point inside Bowdon
Everything above resolves to Bowdon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 Bowdon Average
Bowdon Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Bowdon
- ●One soil character for all of Bowdon
- ●Frost dates read at Bowdon's scale: May 4 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowdon's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowdon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowdon, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowdon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowdon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowdon average
How we know this about Bowdon
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 Bowdon’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 Bowdon
When does frost risk typically end in Bowdon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowdon typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Bowdon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowdon typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowdon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowdon sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 24, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowdon?
The federal record around Bowdon shows 50 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 I protect my plants from frost in Bowdon?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bowdon's scale — its 4a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowdon'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 Bowdon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bowdon's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowdon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bowdon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 8 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowdon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowdon's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bowdon sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowdon's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wells County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wells 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 Wells County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowdon's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowdon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 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 Bowdon-wide figureread your own land →
More in North Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across North DakotaBowdon sits outside our named growing regions, so North Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides