Basile, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Basile, 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 Basile 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 Basile — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Basile — the short answer
Basile, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 742 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 742 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 Evangeline Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Basile's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Basile's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Basile
Each reading below is measured for Basile itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBasile runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Evangeline Parish, the closest normal to Basile) — 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
MeasuredBasile sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Basile is in
Basile sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Basile's own centroid rather than borrowed from Evangeline Parish.
What Grows in Basile
Every plant below cleared Basile's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Basile?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Basile
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Basile. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Burchs CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Ev-348Nitrate · 1400 ft
- BASILE FAMILY HEALTHCAREBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Redlich's City CashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Ev-98Nitrate · 1700 ft
- BELLONS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #6642Brownfields · 2200 ft
- Meier Construction CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JJ&SONS PAINT AND BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2200 ft
- EZ Mart #4299Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Ev-689ANitrate · 0.5 mi
- Ev-689BNitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Basile'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 Basile.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Basile
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Basile
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Basile
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Basile, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Basile. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Basile
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 Basile average
Your land is one point inside Basile
Everything above resolves to Basile as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 742 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Evangeline 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 Basile Average
Basile Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Basile
- ●One soil character for all of Basile
- ●Frost dates read at Basile's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Basile's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Basile
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Basile, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Basile averages can't show:
We read public map data around Basile — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Basile average
How we know this about Basile
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 Evangeline 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 Basile
When does frost risk typically end in Basile?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Basile typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Basile?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Basile typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Basile?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Basile sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 24, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Basile?
The federal record around Basile shows 144 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), 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 Basile?
From about Nov 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 Dec 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 Dec 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Basile's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Basile'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 Basile’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Basile's own scale — the 742 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Basile's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Basile, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Basile's boundary and the 742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Basile's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Basile has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Evangeline Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Basile's 742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Evangeline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Evangeline 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 Evangeline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Basile's 742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Basile you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 742 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 Basile-wide figureread your own land →
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