Claiborne Parish, in Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Claiborne 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
Claiborne Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Claiborne Parish — the short answer
Claiborne Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 483K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 483K 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 8b is Claiborne Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claiborne Parish's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Claiborne Parish
Across a year, Claiborne Parish accumulates about 5,533 growing degree days above 50°F, about 763 fewer than the middle Louisiana county — no other Louisiana county banks fewer. 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 1,218 hours below 45°F, 606 more 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 Claiborne County
Across Claiborne County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Darley, Sacul, and Eastwood are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
22%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Claiborne Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 62% of Claiborne Parish as well drained — but another 37% drains differently: 23% moderately well drained, 12% poorly drained.
Darley is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Sacul (20%) and Eastwood (14%).
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 Claiborne Parish
Each reading below is measured for Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Claiborne Parish runs about pH 5.3–5.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredClaiborne Parish runs about 265 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredClaiborne Parish 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 Claiborne Parish is in
Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against Claiborne Parish's own USDA zone 8b and its own 265-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 Claiborne Parish?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Claiborne Parish
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Claiborne Parish
USGS estimates 3,925 lb of Glyphosate on Claiborne Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (3,206 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,757 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 Claiborne County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Claiborne County — 270 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). 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 Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish
Closest first, across Claiborne County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cl-14Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Cl-155Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Cl-160Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Cl-140ANitrate · 2.1 mi
- Cl-140BNitrate · 2.1 mi
- Arizona General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- JEEMS BAYOU PROD CORPBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- SOUTH CLAIBORNE WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 3.0 mi
- HOMER WATER SYSTEM, LAPFAS · 3.0 mi
- Homer Municipal Airport - Improve Runway 12/30 Safety Area - ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- USFS - Middle Fork WorkcenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GORMANS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish.
Total Sites
270
across Claiborne County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Claiborne County
Severity Distribution
across Claiborne County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Claiborne Parish, two things run higher than the national average across Claiborne County — Nitrate (106 sites) and PFAS (3 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 Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish average
Your land is one point inside Claiborne Parish
Everything above resolves to Claiborne Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 483K 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 Claiborne Parish Average
Claiborne Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Claiborne Parish
- ●One soil character for all of Claiborne Parish
- ●Frost dates read at Claiborne Parish's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claiborne Parish's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Claiborne Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claiborne Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claiborne Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claiborne Parish average
How we know this about Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Claiborne Parish
When does frost risk typically end in Claiborne Parish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claiborne Parish typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Claiborne Parish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claiborne Parish sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 8, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claiborne Parish?
The federal record around Claiborne Parish is a meaningful one — 270 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (106), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Claiborne Parish's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Claiborne Parish's own scale — its own ~265-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 270 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claiborne Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claiborne Parish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Claiborne ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 270 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Claiborne Parish's boundary and the 483,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Claiborne Parish sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Claiborne Parish for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Claiborne 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 Claiborne Parish — the ~265 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 Claiborne Parish's 483,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 270 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 Claiborne Parishread your own land →