Carlyss, 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, satsuma orange, live oak, and pecan — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Carlyss, 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 Carlyss 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 Carlyss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carlyss — the short answer
Carlyss, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 30
- Calcasieu Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Calcasieu Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Calcasieu Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Calcasieu Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Carlyss's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlyss's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlyss
Each reading below is measured for Carlyss itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCarlyss runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Calcasieu Parish, the closest normal to Carlyss) — 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
MeasuredCarlyss 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 Carlyss is in
Carlyss sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carlyss's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calcasieu Parish.
What Grows in Carlyss
Plants matched to Carlyss's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Carlyss?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Carlyss
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlyss. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BENTONS EQUIP & CONSTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #6117Brownfields · 2100 ft
- INDUSTRIAL PAINTING SVCS LLCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Golden Tor Inc - Cajun Fast MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LINDE INC - CARLYSS PSA FACILITYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LAWRENCE-CRANE INDUSTRIAL COATINGSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- TOPS TRUCK CENTERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- GROQUIPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Circle K #2707793Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Circle K #8336Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Cameron Telephone Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CAMERON TELEPHONE CO INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlyss'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 Carlyss.
Total Sites
1,261
within ~10 miles of Carlyss
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlyss
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlyss
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 Carlyss
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 Carlyss average
Your land is one point inside Carlyss
Everything above resolves to Carlyss as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calcasieu 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 Carlyss Average
Carlyss Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Carlyss
- ●One soil character for all of Carlyss
- ●Frost dates read at Carlyss's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlyss's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlyss
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlyss, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlyss averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlyss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlyss average
How we know this about Carlyss
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 Calcasieu 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 Carlyss
When does frost risk typically end in Carlyss?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlyss typically lands around Jan 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Carlyss?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlyss typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlyss?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlyss sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 30 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 20 to Nov 25, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlyss?
The federal record around Carlyss is a meaningful one — 1,261 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (580), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Carlyss?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlyss's scale — its 9b band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlyss'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 Carlyss’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Carlyss's own scale — the 7,080 acres it covers and 1,261 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlyss's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,261 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlyss, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlyss's boundary and the 7,080 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Carlyss's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Carlyss has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calcasieu Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carlyss's 7,080 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calcasieu County
- The candidate plant list — Louisiana's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Louisiana
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calcasieu 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 Calcasieu County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlyss's 7,080 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlyss you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,080 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Carlyss-wide figureread your own land →
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