Chalmette, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Chalmette, 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 Chalmette 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 Chalmette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chalmette — the short answer
Chalmette, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 338 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~338
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 St. Bernard Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Chalmette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chalmette's 338-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chalmette
Each reading below is measured for Chalmette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChalmette runs about 338 days between hard freezes (read from St. Bernard Parish, the closest normal to Chalmette) — 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
MeasuredChalmette 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 Chalmette is in
Chalmette sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chalmette's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Bernard Parish.
What Grows in Chalmette
Every plant below cleared Chalmette's own zone 9b and its 338-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chalmette?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — 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 Chalmette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chalmette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Amoco Station-971Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- Main's Chalmette MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KERN CHIROPRACTICBrownfields · 800 ft
- CVS Pharmacy #2597Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Jimco Inc - ChalmetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2597Brownfields · 900 ft
- STAR ENTERPRISEBrownfields · 900 ft
- WALGREEN DRUG STORE 7415Brownfields · 900 ft
- RT #2350 Paris RoadUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JIFFY LUBE INTL INC 935Brownfields · 950 ft
- Hoffer's of Chalmette IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BILL HOFFERS CHALMETTE EXXONBrownfields · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chalmette'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 Chalmette.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chalmette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chalmette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chalmette, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,260 sites within ~10 miles of Chalmette. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Chalmette
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 Chalmette average
Your land is one point inside Chalmette
Everything above resolves to Chalmette as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Bernard 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 Chalmette Average
Chalmette Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Chalmette
- ●One soil character for all of Chalmette
- ●Frost dates read at Chalmette's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chalmette's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chalmette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chalmette, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chalmette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chalmette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chalmette average
How we know this about Chalmette
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. Bernard 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 Chalmette
When does frost risk typically end in Chalmette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chalmette typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 6.
When is the first frost in Chalmette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chalmette typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 338 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chalmette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chalmette sees about 338 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Dec 6, about 303 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chalmette?
The federal record around Chalmette is a meaningful one — 3,813 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,260), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chalmette?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chalmette's scale — its 9b band and its 338-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chalmette'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 Chalmette’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Chalmette's own scale — the 4,591 acres it covers and 3,813 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chalmette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,813 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chalmette, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chalmette's boundary and the 4,591 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~338-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chalmette's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chalmette has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Bernard Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chalmette's 4,591 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Bernard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Bernard 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. Bernard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chalmette's 4,591 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chalmette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,591 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chalmette-wide figureread your own land →