Clarks, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clarks, 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 Clarks 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 Clarks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clarks — the short answer
Clarks, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 614 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Caldwell Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Caldwell Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- Caldwell Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 614 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 Caldwell Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Clarks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarks's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarks
Each reading below is measured for Clarks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClarks runs about 284 days between hard freezes (read from Caldwell Parish, the closest normal to Clarks) — 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
MeasuredClarks sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Clarks is in
Clarks sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clarks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caldwell Parish.
What Grows in Clarks
Every plant below cleared Clarks's own zone 8b and its 284-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarks?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Clarks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ca-103Nitrate · 750 ft
- Mullin Wood CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RD's Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Ca-5Nitrate · 1200 ft
- Clarks StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Ca-10Nitrate · 1400 ft
- Jordans GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Texaco Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Key SystemUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WILCOX OIL & GAS SUPPLY INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- PHASERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Clarks RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarks'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 Clarks.
Total Sites
186
within ~10 miles of Clarks
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 108 sites within ~10 miles of Clarks. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Clarks
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 Clarks average
Your land is one point inside Clarks
Everything above resolves to Clarks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 614 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Caldwell 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 Clarks Average
Clarks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clarks
- ●One soil character for all of Clarks
- ●Frost dates read at Clarks's scale: Feb 18 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarks's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarks, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarks average
How we know this about Clarks
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 Caldwell 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 Clarks
When does frost risk typically end in Clarks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarks typically lands around Feb 18, 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 Mar 11.
When is the first frost in Clarks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarks typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 284 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarks sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 15, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarks?
The federal record around Clarks shows 186 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (108), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Clarks?
From about Oct 30 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 Nov 29 (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 Nov 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarks's scale — its 8b band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarks'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 Clarks’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Clarks's own scale — the 614 acres it covers and 186 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarks, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarks's boundary and the 614 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clarks's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clarks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Caldwell Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clarks's 614 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caldwell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caldwell 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 Caldwell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarks's 614 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 614 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Clarks-wide figureread your own land →
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