St. Bernard Parish, in Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
St. Bernard Parish lies within Greater New Orleans and the Gulf Coast — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
St. Bernard Parish holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
St. Bernard Parish — the short answer
St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 338 days between hard freezes, across 242K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~338
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 242K 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 9b is St. Bernard Parish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. Bernard Parish's 338-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in St. Bernard Parish
Across a year, St. Bernard Parish accumulates about 6,836 growing degree days above 50°F, about 540 more than the middle Louisiana county — ahead of 52 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 0 hours below 45°F, 612 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 St. Bernard County
Across St. Bernard County, the ground is predominantly Histosols, where Scatlake, Clovelly, and Lafitte are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.3–8.0, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Histosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
94%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across St. Bernard Parish
The USDA soil survey maps 45% of St. Bernard Parish as very poorly drained — but another 5% drains differently: 3% somewhat poorly drained, 3% poorly drained.
Scatlake is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Clovelly (14%) and Lafitte (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 St. Bernard Parish
Each reading below is measured for St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across St. Bernard Parish runs about pH 7.3–8.0, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredSt. Bernard Parish runs about 338 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
MeasuredSt. Bernard Parish 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 St. Bernard Parish is in
St. Bernard Parish sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in St. Bernard Parish
We scored all 1,086 plants against St. Bernard Parish's own USDA zone 9b and its own 338-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 St. Bernard Parish?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What gets applied to farmland in St. Bernard Parish
USGS estimates 1,031 lb of 2,4-d on St. Bernard Parish farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Triclopyr (169 lb) and Glyphosate (138 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 St. Bernard County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across St. Bernard County — 334 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish
Closest first, across St. Bernard County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Shell #137502Underground Storage Tanks · 18.6 mi
- Old Fashioned Investments LLC - Vacant Commercial LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 19.0 mi
- Quick Serve #1Underground Storage Tanks · 20.3 mi
- Nazareth Inn IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 21.0 mi
- Providence Community Housing - Nazareth InnUnderground Storage Tanks · 21.0 mi
- Pip's Place Marina IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 24.2 mi
- Dudenhefer's Hopedale BoatUnderground Storage Tanks · 25.0 mi
- Frank CampoUnderground Storage Tanks · 25.3 mi
- Campo's MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 25.3 mi
- LA DOT BAYOU LALOUTRE BRIDGEBrownfields · 25.7 mi
- YSCLOSKEY PLANTBrownfields · 26.5 mi
- TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE COMPANY LLC - COMPRESSOR STATION 529Brownfields · 26.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish.
Total Sites
334
across St. Bernard County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across St. Bernard County
Severity Distribution
across St. Bernard County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. Bernard Parish, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 189 sites across St. Bernard County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish average
Your land is one point inside St. Bernard Parish
Everything above resolves to St. Bernard Parish as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 242K 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 St. Bernard Parish Average
St. Bernard Parish Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across St. Bernard Parish
- ●One soil character for all of St. Bernard Parish
- ●Frost dates read at St. Bernard Parish's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. Bernard Parish's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in St. Bernard Parish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. Bernard Parish averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. Bernard Parish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. Bernard Parish average
How we know this about St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about St. Bernard Parish
When does frost risk typically end in St. Bernard Parish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. Bernard Parish 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.
How long is the growing season in St. Bernard Parish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. Bernard Parish 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 St. Bernard Parish?
The federal record around St. Bernard Parish is a meaningful one — 334 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (189), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 19 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 St. Bernard Parish's scale — its 9b band and its 338-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at St. Bernard Parish's own scale — its own ~338-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 334 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. Bernard Parish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- St. Bernard Parish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~338-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in St. Bernard ParishUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 334 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 19 miles outFederal environmental registers
- St. Bernard Parish's boundary and the 241,618 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~338-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- St. Bernard Parish sitting wholly inside the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish — the ~338 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 St. Bernard Parish's 241,618 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 334 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 St. Bernard Parishread your own land →