Beauregard Parish, in Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Beauregard Parish lies within the Piney Woods — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Beauregard Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Beauregard Parish, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Beauregard Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beauregard Parish — the short answer
Beauregard Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 741K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 741K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Beauregard Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beauregard Parish's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Beauregard Parish
Across a year, Beauregard Parish accumulates about 6,353 growing degree days above 50°F, about 57 more than the middle Louisiana county — ahead of 34 of Louisiana’s 64 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 583 hours below 45°F, 29 fewer than the Louisiana middle of 612. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Beauregard County
Across Beauregard County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Beauregard, Caddo, and Guyton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
72%
Hydric soils
34%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Beauregard Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Beauregard Parish as moderately well drained — but another 61% drains differently: 38% poorly drained, 12% well drained.
Beauregard is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Caddo (13%) and Guyton (12%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Beauregard Parish
Each reading below is measured for Beauregard Parish itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Beauregard Parish are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Beauregard Parish runs about pH 4.8–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 34% of Beauregard Parish is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBeauregard Parish runs about 305 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Beauregard Parish is in
Beauregard Parish sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Beauregard Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against Beauregard Parish's own USDA zone 9a and its own 305-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile.
Is it too late to plant in Beauregard Parish?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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.
Documented around Beauregard Parish
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Beauregard Parish
USGS estimates 12,032 lb of 2,4-d on Beauregard Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (7,293 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (4,078 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Beauregard County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Beauregard County — 466 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Beauregard County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Beauregard Parish
Closest first, across Beauregard County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- James CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- John C Richey TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Be-6166ZNitrate · 4.0 mi
- BEACH CONTRACTORS INCBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- Singer General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Singer RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #21907Brownfields · 4.4 mi
- Singer One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Be-423BNitrate · 4.4 mi
- Be-423ANitrate · 4.4 mi
- Be-461Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- One Cent AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beauregard Parish'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 Beauregard Parish.
Sources Checked
across Beauregard County
Severity Distribution
across Beauregard County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beauregard Parish, two things run higher than the national average across Beauregard County — Nitrate (210 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Beauregard Parish
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 Beauregard Parish average
Your land is one point inside Beauregard Parish
Everything above resolves to Beauregard Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 741K acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Beauregard Parish Average
Beauregard Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Beauregard Parish
- ●One soil character for all of Beauregard Parish
- ●Frost dates read at Beauregard Parish's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beauregard Parish's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Beauregard Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beauregard Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beauregard Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beauregard Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beauregard Parish average
How we know this about Beauregard Parish
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Beauregard Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Beauregard Parish
When does frost risk typically end in Beauregard Parish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beauregard Parish typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Beauregard Parish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beauregard Parish sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 23, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beauregard Parish?
The federal record around Beauregard Parish is a meaningful one — 466 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (210), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Beauregard Parish's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beauregard Parish's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Louisiana's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Beauregard Parish’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Beauregard Parish's own scale — its own ~305-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 466 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beauregard Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beauregard Parish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~305-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Beauregard ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 466 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Beauregard Parish's boundary and the 740,785 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Beauregard Parish sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Beauregard Parish for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Beauregard Parish farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Louisiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Louisiana
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Beauregard Parish — the ~305 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beauregard Parish's 740,785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 466 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Beauregard Parishread your own land →