Denham Springs, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Denham Springs, 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 Denham Springs 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 Denham Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Denham Springs — the short answer
Denham Springs, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Livingston Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Livingston Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Livingston Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Livingston Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Denham Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Denham Springs's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Denham Springs
Each reading below is measured for Denham Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDenham Springs runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Livingston Parish, the closest normal to Denham Springs) — 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
MeasuredDenham Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Denham Springs is in
Denham Springs sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Denham Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston Parish.
What Grows in Denham Springs
Every plant below cleared Denham Springs's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Denham Springs?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Denham Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Denham Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lard Oil Co of Denham Spring LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LARD OIL CO OF DENHAM SPRING LLCToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- EXPERT COLLISION LLCBrownfields · 850 ft
- LIVINGSTON PRINTINGBrownfields · 900 ft
- DAVIS FOREIGN CAR RPRBrownfields · 900 ft
- Brignac Self-ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PERFORMANCE PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #935Brownfields · 1100 ft
- PROFESSIONAL TRANSPORT & CONSTRUCTION SVBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5334Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Murphy Express #8874Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BOYD CHIROPRACTIC CLINIC THEBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Denham Springs'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 Denham Springs.
Total Sites
2,155
within ~10 miles of Denham Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Denham Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Denham Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Denham Springs, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,218 sites within ~10 miles of Denham Springs. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Denham Springs
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 Denham Springs average
Your land is one point inside Denham Springs
Everything above resolves to Denham Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Livingston Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Denham Springs Average
Denham Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Denham Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Denham Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Denham Springs's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Denham Springs's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Denham Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Denham Springs, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Denham Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Denham Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Denham Springs average
How we know this about Denham Springs
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Livingston 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Denham Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Denham Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Denham Springs typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Denham Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Denham Springs typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Denham Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Denham Springs sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 22, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Denham Springs?
The federal record around Denham Springs is a meaningful one — 2,155 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Denham Springs?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Denham Springs's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Denham Springs'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 Denham Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Denham Springs's own scale — the 4,687 acres it covers and 2,155 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Denham Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Denham Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Denham Springs's boundary and the 4,687 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Denham Springs's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Denham Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Livingston Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Denham Springs's 4,687 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Denham Springs's 4,687 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Denham Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,687 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Denham Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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