Bayou Vista, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bayou Vista, 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 Vista 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 Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bayou Vista — the short answer
Bayou Vista, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- St. Mary 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. Mary Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Bayou Vista's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayou Vista's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayou Vista
Each reading below is measured for Bayou Vista itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBayou Vista runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from St. Mary Parish, the closest normal to Bayou Vista) — 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 Vista 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 Vista is in
Bayou Vista sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bayou Vista's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Mary Parish.
What Grows in Bayou Vista
Every plant below cleared Bayou Vista's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bayou Vista?
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 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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Bayou Vista
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayou Vista. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bayou Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Slick Sam's I Bayou Vista ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- AZZ GALVANIZING - MORGAN CITY LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- AZZ GALVANIZING - MORGAN CITY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- Kwik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AXIS BOAT OPERATORS INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LABORDE MARINEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- RICKEYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Carolina Offshore Boats IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Patterson Self ServeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JACOBS CONTRACTING SERVICESBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Morgan City Bank - Real EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayou Vista'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 Vista.
Total Sites
495
within ~10 miles of Bayou Vista
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
22 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayou Vista
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayou Vista
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bayou Vista, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 329 sites within ~10 miles of Bayou Vista. 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 Bayou Vista
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 Vista average
Your land is one point inside Bayou Vista
Everything above resolves to Bayou Vista as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Mary 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 Vista Average
Bayou Vista Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bayou Vista
- ●One soil character for all of Bayou Vista
- ●Frost dates read at Bayou Vista's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayou Vista's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayou Vista
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayou Vista, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayou Vista averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayou Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayou Vista average
How we know this about Bayou Vista
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. Mary 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 Vista
When does frost risk typically end in Bayou Vista?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayou Vista 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 Vista?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayou Vista typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayou Vista?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayou Vista sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Dec 1, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayou Vista?
The federal record around Bayou Vista is a meaningful one — 495 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (329), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Vista?
From about Nov 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 Dec 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayou Vista's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayou Vista'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 Vista’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bayou Vista's own scale — the 1,153 acres it covers and 495 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayou Vista's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 495 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayou Vista, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayou Vista's boundary and the 1,153 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayou Vista's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bayou Vista has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Mary Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayou Vista's 1,153 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Mary County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Mary 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. Mary County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayou Vista's 1,153 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayou Vista you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,153 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 Bayou Vista-wide figureread your own land →