Baskin, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Baskin, 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 Baskin 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 Baskin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baskin — the short answer
Baskin, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 853 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Franklin Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Franklin Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Franklin Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 853 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 Franklin Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Baskin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baskin's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baskin
Each reading below is measured for Baskin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBaskin runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Franklin Parish, the closest normal to Baskin) — 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
MeasuredBaskin sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Baskin is in
Baskin sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baskin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin Parish.
What Grows in Baskin
Every plant below cleared Baskin's own zone 8b and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baskin?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Baskin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baskin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Taylor's Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- H C Rogers GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- T's Fast Gas LLC - Baskin Fast GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Fr-5343ZNitrate · 2000 ft
- Baskin U-Pak-ItUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MCMURRAY DIRT & DEMOLITION COBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Medlin Steel Roofing Supply LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Ri-81Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Ri-83Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Fr-301Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Fr-295Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- Ri-84Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baskin'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 Baskin.
Total Sites
231
within ~10 miles of Baskin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baskin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baskin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baskin, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Baskin. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Baskin
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 Baskin average
Your land is one point inside Baskin
Everything above resolves to Baskin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 853 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Franklin 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 Baskin Average
Baskin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Baskin
- ●One soil character for all of Baskin
- ●Frost dates read at Baskin's scale: Feb 16 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baskin's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baskin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baskin, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baskin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baskin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baskin average
How we know this about Baskin
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 Franklin 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 Baskin
When does frost risk typically end in Baskin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baskin typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 9.
When is the first frost in Baskin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baskin typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baskin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baskin sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 14, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baskin?
The federal record around Baskin is a meaningful one — 231 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), 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 Baskin?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baskin's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baskin'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 Baskin’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Baskin's own scale — the 853 acres it covers and 231 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baskin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 231 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baskin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baskin's boundary and the 853 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baskin's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Baskin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Franklin Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baskin's 853 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baskin's 853 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baskin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 853 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 Baskin-wide figureread your own land →
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