Donaldsonville, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Donaldsonville, 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 Donaldsonville 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 Donaldsonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Donaldsonville — the short answer
Donaldsonville, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 307 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Ascension Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Ascension Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~307
- Ascension Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Ascension Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Donaldsonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Donaldsonville's 307-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Donaldsonville
Each reading below is measured for Donaldsonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDonaldsonville runs about 307 days between hard freezes (read from Ascension Parish, the closest normal to Donaldsonville) — 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
MeasuredDonaldsonville 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 Donaldsonville is in
Donaldsonville sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Donaldsonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ascension Parish.
What Grows in Donaldsonville
Every plant below cleared Donaldsonville's own zone 9a and its 307-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Donaldsonville?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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's on the federal record near Donaldsonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Donaldsonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Donaldsonville Dream CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Mitchell's IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 14163Brownfields · 900 ft
- Union Pacific RailroadUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SMITH BODY SHOPBrownfields · 950 ft
- MARCELLO DISTRIBUTORS LLC - DONALDSONVILLE FACILITYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Marcello Distributors/Thibaut Oil Co Inc - Donaldsonville FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- General Mud Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Gaubert Oil Co Inc - Donaldsonville FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Marcello Distributors Inc - Donaldsonville Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GERBER COLLISION & GLASS -DONALDSONVILLEBrownfields · 1300 ft
- J&T SupermarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Donaldsonville'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 Donaldsonville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Donaldsonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Donaldsonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Donaldsonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Donaldsonville — Toxics Release Inventory (59 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Donaldsonville
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 Donaldsonville average
Your land is one point inside Donaldsonville
Everything above resolves to Donaldsonville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ascension 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 Donaldsonville Average
Donaldsonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Donaldsonville
- ●One soil character for all of Donaldsonville
- ●Frost dates read at Donaldsonville's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Donaldsonville's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Donaldsonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Donaldsonville, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Donaldsonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Donaldsonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Donaldsonville average
How we know this about Donaldsonville
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 Ascension 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 Donaldsonville
When does frost risk typically end in Donaldsonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Donaldsonville typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Donaldsonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Donaldsonville typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 307 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Donaldsonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Donaldsonville sees about 307 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 24, about 272 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Donaldsonville?
The federal record around Donaldsonville is a meaningful one — 605 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (293), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Donaldsonville?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Donaldsonville's scale — its 9a band and its 307-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Donaldsonville'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 Donaldsonville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Donaldsonville's own scale — the 2,418 acres it covers and 605 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Donaldsonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 605 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Donaldsonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Donaldsonville's boundary and the 2,418 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~307-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Donaldsonville's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Donaldsonville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ascension Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Donaldsonville's 2,418 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ascension County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ascension 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 Ascension County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Donaldsonville's 2,418 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Donaldsonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,418 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Donaldsonville-wide figureread your own land →
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