Centerville, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Centerville, 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 Centerville 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 Centerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Centerville — the short answer
Centerville, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 603 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
- 603 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 Centerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Centerville's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Centerville
Each reading below is measured for Centerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCenterville runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from St. Mary Parish, the closest normal to Centerville) — 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
MeasuredCenterville 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 Centerville is in
Centerville sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Centerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Mary Parish.
What Grows in Centerville
Every plant below cleared Centerville'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 Centerville?
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 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. 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 Centerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Centerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTERN AUTO ASSOC STOREBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Columbia Gulf Transmission CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Bayou Sale Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #20243Brownfields · 1800 ft
- Robicheaux's MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TRUNKLINE GAS COMPANY LLC - CENTERVILLE COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Deli MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ST MARY WATER & SEWER COMM #3PFAS · 0.8 mi
- D&D WELD FAB, INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- HARVEST MIDSTREAM CO - BURNS TERMINALBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- A & W ENGINE SVCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Franklin Travel Center #618Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Centerville'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 Centerville.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Centerville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Centerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Centerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Centerville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Centerville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Centerville
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 Centerville average
Your land is one point inside Centerville
Everything above resolves to Centerville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 603 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 Centerville Average
Centerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Centerville
- ●One soil character for all of Centerville
- ●Frost dates read at Centerville's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Centerville's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Centerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Centerville, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Centerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Centerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Centerville average
How we know this about Centerville
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 Centerville
When does frost risk typically end in Centerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Centerville 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 Centerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Centerville 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 Centerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Centerville 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 Centerville?
The federal record around Centerville is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), 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 Centerville?
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 Centerville's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Centerville'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 Centerville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Centerville's own scale — the 603 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Centerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Centerville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Centerville's boundary and the 603 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 Centerville's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Centerville 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 Centerville's 603 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 Centerville's 603 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Centerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 603 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 Centerville-wide figureread your own land →