Bowerston, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowerston, 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 Bowerston 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 Bowerston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bowerston — the short answer
Bowerston, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 324 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 324 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 Bowerston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowerston's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowerston
Each reading below is measured for Bowerston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBowerston runs about 208 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
MeasuredBowerston 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 Bowerston is in
Bowerston sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bowerston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harrison County.
What Grows in Bowerston
Every plant below cleared Bowerston's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowerston?
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 Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Bowerston
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Bowerston, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bowerston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowerston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VILLAGE OF BOWERSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- NOLAN CO THEBrownfields · 450 ft
- MINOVA USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- MINOVA USA INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- MCCLAIN SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BOWERSTON SHALE COMPANY (0634000012)Toxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- BOWERSTON SHALE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MONROE TOWNSHIP TRUSTEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CONOTTON VALLEY UNION LOCALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 2465 WAYNESBURG LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- CLOWS LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- JSK PETROLEUM LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowerston'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 Bowerston.
Total Sites
148
within ~10 miles of Bowerston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bowerston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowerston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bowerston, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Bowerston. 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 Bowerston
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 Bowerston average
Your land is one point inside Bowerston
Everything above resolves to Bowerston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 324 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 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 Bowerston Average
Bowerston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bowerston
- ●One soil character for all of Bowerston
- ●Frost dates read at Bowerston's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowerston's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowerston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowerston, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowerston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowerston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowerston average
How we know this about Bowerston
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 Bowerston’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 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 Bowerston
When does frost risk typically end in Bowerston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowerston typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Bowerston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowerston typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowerston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowerston sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 22, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowerston?
The federal record around Bowerston is a meaningful one — 148 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), 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 Bowerston?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bowerston's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowerston'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 Bowerston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bowerston's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 324 acres it covers and 148 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowerston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bowerston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 5 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 148 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowerston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowerston's boundary and the 324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bowerston's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bowerstonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowerston's 324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harrison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harrison County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Harrison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowerston's 324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowerston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 324 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 Bowerston-wide figureread your own land →
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