Arabi, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arabi, 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 Arabi 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 Arabi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arabi — the short answer
Arabi, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 338 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~338
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are St. Bernard Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Arabi's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arabi's 338-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arabi
Each reading below is measured for Arabi itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsArabi runs about 338 days between hard freezes (read from St. Bernard Parish, the closest normal to Arabi) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArabi sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Arabi is in
Arabi sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arabi's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Bernard Parish.
What Grows in Arabi
Every plant below cleared Arabi's own zone 9b and its 338-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arabi?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Arabi
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arabi. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUTCHMANS GOLDEN CLEANERSBrownfields · 350 ft
- SAMS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 350 ft
- C & W Brigade LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Old American Rent-All IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- AMERICAN SUGAR REFINING INC - CHALMETTE CANE SUGAR REFINERYToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- AMERICAN SUGAR REFINING INC - CHALMETTE CANE SUGAR REFINERYBrownfields · 950 ft
- MOODY AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Arabi Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SPECIAL TSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- METAL MENDERS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Palm's Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Spur StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arabi'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 Arabi.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arabi
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arabi
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arabi, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,566 sites within ~10 miles of Arabi. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Arabi
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 Arabi average
Your land is one point inside Arabi
Everything above resolves to Arabi as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Bernard Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Arabi Average
Arabi Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Arabi
- ●One soil character for all of Arabi
- ●Frost dates read at Arabi's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arabi's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arabi
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arabi, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arabi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arabi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arabi average
How we know this about Arabi
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 St. Bernard Parish’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Arabi
When does frost risk typically end in Arabi?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arabi typically lands around Jan 16, 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 Feb 6.
When is the first frost in Arabi?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arabi typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 338 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arabi?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arabi sees about 338 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Dec 6, about 303 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arabi?
The federal record around Arabi is a meaningful one — 4,334 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,566), the nearest Brownfields 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 Arabi?
From about Nov 20 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 Dec 20 (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 Dec 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arabi's scale — its 9b band and its 338-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arabi'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 Arabi’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Arabi's own scale — the 1,123 acres it covers and 4,334 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arabi's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4,334 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arabi, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arabi's boundary and the 1,123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~338-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arabi's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Arabi has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Bernard Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arabi's 1,123 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Bernard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Bernard County
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom St. Bernard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arabi's 1,123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arabi you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,123 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Arabi-wide figureread your own land →