Bowling Green, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bowling Green, 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 Bowling Green 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 Bowling Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bowling Green — the short answer
Bowling Green, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7b is Bowling Green's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bowling Green's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bowling Green
Each reading below is measured for Bowling Green itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBowling Green runs about 234 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
MeasuredBowling Green sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Bowling Green is in
Bowling Green sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bowling Green's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caroline County.
What Grows in Bowling Green
Every plant below cleared Bowling Green's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bowling Green?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Bowling Green
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Bowling Green, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bowling Green
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bowling Green. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OFFICE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT & RESUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HIGHWAY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VDOT Farmers Area HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CAROLINE COUNTY JAIL & COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALGREENS STORE #18200Brownfields · 1200 ft
- 116-00343Nitrate · 1300 ft
- SHORTY T sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Q-Markets Exxon #233Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Bowling Green ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KETTERMANS SERVICENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FARMER TIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bowling Green'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 Bowling Green.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Bowling Green
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bowling Green
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bowling Green
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bowling Green, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Bowling Green. 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 Bowling Green
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 Bowling Green average
Your land is one point inside Bowling Green
Everything above resolves to Bowling Green as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bowling Green Average
Bowling Green Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bowling Green
- ●One soil character for all of Bowling Green
- ●Frost dates read at Bowling Green's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bowling Green's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bowling Green
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bowling Green, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bowling Green averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bowling Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bowling Green average
How we know this about Bowling Green
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 Bowling Green’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 Bowling Green
When does frost risk typically end in Bowling Green?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bowling Green typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Bowling Green?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bowling Green typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bowling Green?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bowling Green sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 31, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bowling Green?
The federal record around Bowling Green shows 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bowling Green?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bowling Green's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bowling Green'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 Bowling Green’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bowling Green's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,027 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bowling Green's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bowling Green's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 14 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bowling Green, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bowling Green's boundary and the 1,027 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bowling Green's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bowling Greenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bowling Green's 1,027 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caroline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caroline County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Caroline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bowling Green's 1,027 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bowling Green you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,027 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bowling Green-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaBowling Green sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides