Bovina, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bovina, 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 Bovina 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 Bovina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bovina — the short answer
Bovina, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 754 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 754 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 7a is Bovina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bovina's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bovina
Each reading below is measured for Bovina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBovina runs about 211 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
MeasuredBovina sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Bovina is in
Bovina sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bovina's own centroid rather than borrowed from Parmer County.
What Grows in Bovina
Every plant below cleared Bovina's own zone 7a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bovina?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Bovina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bovina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOVINA ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GTSW BOVINA CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ALLSUPS 18Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CHARLES OILCO AND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BOVINA FOOD EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RHODES CROP CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BOVINA MAINTENANCE SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CARGILL SWEET BRAN BOVINAToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- CARGILL CATTLE FEEDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BOVINA CATTLECAFO · 4.5 mi
- SD FARMSCAFO · 5.2 mi
- FRIONA FEED YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bovina'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 Bovina.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Bovina
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bovina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bovina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bovina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bovina — CAFO (14 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (55 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bovina
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 Bovina average
Your land is one point inside Bovina
Everything above resolves to Bovina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 754 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 Bovina Average
Bovina Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bovina
- ●One soil character for all of Bovina
- ●Frost dates read at Bovina's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bovina's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bovina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bovina, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bovina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bovina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bovina average
How we know this about Bovina
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 Bovina’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 Bovina
When does frost risk typically end in Bovina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bovina typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bovina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bovina typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bovina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bovina sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bovina?
The federal record around Bovina shows 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Bovina?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bovina's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bovina'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 Bovina’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bovina's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 754 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bovina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bovina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bovina, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bovina's boundary and the 754 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bovina's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bovina's 754 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Parmer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Parmer County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Parmer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bovina's 754 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bovina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 754 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Bovina-wide figureread your own land →