Carencro, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Carencro, 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 Carencro 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 Carencro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carencro — the short answer
Carencro, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Lafayette Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Lafayette Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Lafayette Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Lafayette Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Carencro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carencro's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carencro
Each reading below is measured for Carencro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCarencro runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Lafayette Parish, the closest normal to Carencro) — 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
MeasuredCarencro 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 Carencro is in
Carencro sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carencro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette Parish.
What Grows in Carencro
Every plant below cleared Carencro's own zone 9a and its 313-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carencro?
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 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Carencro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carencro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JRS QUALITY TRANSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #7301Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- LOURDES AFTER HOURS - CARENCROBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Lf-659Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Lf-565Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS CORPORATION - FEDERAL EXPRESS-ZLFYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Fuel-N-Food Mart #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHAWNS AUTO BODY RPRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Lf-4Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Galloping JugUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fuel-N-Food Mart #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C&M Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carencro'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 Carencro.
Total Sites
2,017
within ~10 miles of Carencro
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carencro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carencro
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Carencro
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 Carencro average
Your land is one point inside Carencro
Everything above resolves to Carencro as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lafayette 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 Carencro Average
Carencro Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Carencro
- ●One soil character for all of Carencro
- ●Frost dates read at Carencro's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carencro's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carencro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carencro, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carencro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carencro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carencro average
How we know this about Carencro
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 Lafayette 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 Carencro
When does frost risk typically end in Carencro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carencro typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Carencro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carencro typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carencro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carencro sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 24, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carencro?
The federal record around Carencro is a meaningful one — 2,017 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (958), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Carencro?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carencro's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carencro'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 Carencro’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Carencro's own scale — the 5,028 acres it covers and 2,017 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carencro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,017 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carencro, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carencro's boundary and the 5,028 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~313-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carencro's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Carencro has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lafayette Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carencro's 5,028 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carencro's 5,028 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carencro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,028 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Carencro-wide figureread your own land →
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