Charenton, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Charenton, 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 Charenton 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 Charenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charenton — the short answer
Charenton, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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
- 3K 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 Charenton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charenton's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charenton
Each reading below is measured for Charenton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCharenton runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from St. Mary Parish, the closest normal to Charenton) — 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
MeasuredCharenton 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 Charenton is in
Charenton sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Charenton's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Mary Parish.
What Grows in Charenton
Every plant below cleared Charenton'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 Charenton?
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 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Charenton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charenton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WATER & SEWER COMMISSION 4 OF ST MARYPFAS · 0.7 mi
- Discount Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Chitimacha Day SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Bourgeois Cash GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Chitimacha Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #10371Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- Chapron's ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SM-38Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- SM-58Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- SM-32Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SM-52Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Hibernia Bank BranchUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charenton'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 Charenton.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Charenton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charenton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charenton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charenton, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Charenton. 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 Charenton
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 Charenton average
Your land is one point inside Charenton
Everything above resolves to Charenton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K 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 Charenton Average
Charenton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Charenton
- ●One soil character for all of Charenton
- ●Frost dates read at Charenton's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charenton's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charenton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charenton, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charenton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charenton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charenton average
How we know this about Charenton
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 Charenton
When does frost risk typically end in Charenton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charenton 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 Charenton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charenton 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 Charenton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charenton 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 Charenton?
The federal record around Charenton is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest PFAS record about 0.7 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 Charenton?
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 Charenton's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charenton'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 Charenton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Charenton's own scale — the 3,179 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charenton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charenton, the closest PFAS record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charenton's boundary and the 3,179 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 Charenton's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Charenton 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 Charenton's 3,179 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 Charenton's 3,179 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charenton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,179 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.7 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 Charenton-wide figureread your own land →