Bunkie, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bunkie, 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 Bunkie 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 Bunkie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bunkie — the short answer
Bunkie, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 303 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Avoyelles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Avoyelles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~303
- Avoyelles Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Avoyelles Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bunkie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bunkie's 303-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bunkie
Each reading below is measured for Bunkie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBunkie runs about 303 days between hard freezes (read from Avoyelles Parish, the closest normal to Bunkie) — 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
MeasuredBunkie 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 Bunkie is in
Bunkie sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bunkie's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Avoyelles Parish is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bunkie
Every plant below cleared Bunkie's own zone 9a and its 303-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bunkie?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Bunkie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bunkie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Av-2Nitrate · 350 ft
- Av-52Nitrate · 650 ft
- Av-3Nitrate · 950 ft
- Bunkie All Star LLC dba EZ ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AUTOZONE 3048Brownfields · 1200 ft
- Old Ford BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Formerly Esso StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Bunkie Flying Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Charles HargravesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Mahey LLC Main Stop N GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LAMAR FORDBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Chester'S AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bunkie'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 Bunkie.
Total Sites
309
within ~10 miles of Bunkie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bunkie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bunkie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bunkie, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 156 sites within ~10 miles of Bunkie. 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 Bunkie
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 Bunkie average
Your land is one point inside Bunkie
Everything above resolves to Bunkie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Avoyelles Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Bunkie Average
Bunkie Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bunkie
- ●One soil character for all of Bunkie
- ●Frost dates read at Bunkie's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bunkie's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bunkie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bunkie, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bunkie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bunkie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bunkie average
How we know this about Bunkie
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Avoyelles 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Bunkie
When does frost risk typically end in Bunkie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bunkie typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Bunkie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bunkie typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 303 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bunkie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bunkie sees about 303 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 22, about 268 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bunkie?
The federal record around Bunkie is a meaningful one — 309 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (156), the nearest Nitrate 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 Bunkie?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bunkie's scale — its 9a band and its 303-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bunkie'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 Bunkie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bunkie's own scale — the 1,934 acres it covers and 309 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bunkie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 309 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bunkie, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bunkie's boundary and the 1,934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~303-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bunkie sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bunkie has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Avoyelles Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bunkie's 1,934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Avoyelles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Avoyelles 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 Avoyelles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bunkie's 1,934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bunkie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Bunkie-wide figureread your own land →
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