Blanchard, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blanchard, 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 Blanchard 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 Blanchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blanchard — the short answer
Blanchard, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Caddo Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Caddo Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Caddo Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Caddo Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Blanchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blanchard's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blanchard
Each reading below is measured for Blanchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBlanchard runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Caddo Parish, the closest normal to Blanchard) — 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
MeasuredBlanchard 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 Blanchard is in
Blanchard sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blanchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caddo Parish.
What Grows in Blanchard
Every plant below cleared Blanchard's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blanchard?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Dec 2 — 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 Blanchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blanchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CADDO FIRE DISTRICT #1Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Red Burn Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- North American Railway Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #23266Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- Elon Oil Company LLC - Elon Food Mart #11Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SCOTT FARLEY TIRE & AUTOBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- BILLYS AIR CONDITIONINGBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Mango EquipmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- AIR TOOL X CHANGEBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Air Tool X ChangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Cliff's Country CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BellSouth Telecommunications K4352Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blanchard'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 Blanchard.
Total Sites
682
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blanchard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Blanchard
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 Blanchard average
Your land is one point inside Blanchard
Everything above resolves to Blanchard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Caddo 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 Blanchard Average
Blanchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Blanchard
- ●One soil character for all of Blanchard
- ●Frost dates read at Blanchard's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blanchard's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blanchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blanchard, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blanchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blanchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blanchard average
How we know this about Blanchard
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 Caddo 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 Blanchard
When does frost risk typically end in Blanchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchard 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 Blanchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blanchard typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blanchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blanchard sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blanchard?
The federal record around Blanchard is a meaningful one — 682 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (298), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Blanchard?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blanchard's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blanchard'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 Blanchard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Blanchard's own scale — the 2,218 acres it covers and 682 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blanchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 682 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blanchard, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blanchard's boundary and the 2,218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blanchard's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Blanchard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Caddo Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blanchard's 2,218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caddo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caddo 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 Caddo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blanchard's 2,218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blanchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Blanchard-wide figureread your own land →
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