Bayou Blue, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bayou Blue, 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 Bayou Blue 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 Bayou Blue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bayou Blue — the short answer
Bayou Blue, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 327 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- Lafourche Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Lafourche Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~327
- Lafourche Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 Lafourche Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Bayou Blue's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayou Blue's 327-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayou Blue
Each reading below is measured for Bayou Blue itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBayou Blue runs about 327 days between hard freezes (read from Lafourche Parish, the closest normal to Bayou Blue) — 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
MeasuredBayou Blue 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 Bayou Blue is in
Bayou Blue sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bayou Blue's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafourche Parish.
What Grows in Bayou Blue
Every plant below cleared Bayou Blue's own zone 9b and its 327-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayou Blue?
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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 Bayou Blue
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayou Blue. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pats Drive Up GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ANADRILL HOUMA FIELD SVC CNTRBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CRC Wireline IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Wag-A-Pak IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- APEX WOOD WIRELINE SVCS INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- CONTROL VALVE SPECIALISTS INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VENTURE TRANS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- GULF PRO SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Circle K #2740375Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- COLUMBIA GULF TRANS CO HOUMA COMP STBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 9246Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- HOUMA TERMINALBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayou Blue'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 Bayou Blue.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayou Blue
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayou Blue
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bayou Blue, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 679 sites within ~10 miles of Bayou Blue. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Bayou Blue
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 Bayou Blue average
Your land is one point inside Bayou Blue
Everything above resolves to Bayou Blue as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lafourche 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 Bayou Blue Average
Bayou Blue Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bayou Blue
- ●One soil character for all of Bayou Blue
- ●Frost dates read at Bayou Blue's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayou Blue's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayou Blue
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayou Blue, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayou Blue averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayou Blue — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayou Blue average
How we know this about Bayou Blue
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 Lafourche 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 Bayou Blue
When does frost risk typically end in Bayou Blue?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayou Blue typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Bayou Blue?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayou Blue typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 327 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayou Blue?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayou Blue sees about 327 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Dec 3, about 292 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayou Blue?
The federal record around Bayou Blue is a meaningful one — 1,128 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (679), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles 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 Bayou Blue?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayou Blue's scale — its 9b band and its 327-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayou Blue'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 Bayou Blue’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bayou Blue's own scale — the 14,895 acres it covers and 1,128 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayou Blue's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayou Blue, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayou Blue's boundary and the 14,895 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~327-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayou Blue's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bayou Blue has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lafourche Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayou Blue's 14,895 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafourche County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafourche 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 Lafourche County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayou Blue's 14,895 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayou Blue you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,895 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Bayou Blue-wide figureread your own land →