Elmwood, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Elmwood, 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 Elmwood 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 Elmwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elmwood — the short answer
Elmwood, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Jefferson Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Elmwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elmwood's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elmwood
Each reading below is measured for Elmwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElmwood runs about 336 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson Parish, the closest normal to Elmwood) — 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
MeasuredElmwood 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 Elmwood is in
Elmwood sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elmwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson Parish.
What Grows in Elmwood
Every plant below cleared Elmwood's own zone 9b and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elmwood?
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 18 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Elmwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elmwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAST HOLIDAY PRODUCTIONS LLCBrownfields · 400 ft
- W W GRAINGERBrownfields · 400 ft
- ROBERT E NIMS STUDIOBrownfields · 400 ft
- NU-Lite Electrical WholesalersUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- US DOE SPR WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 600 ft
- Robosapien ProductionsUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ROLLING FRITO-LAY SALESBrownfields · 600 ft
- BELLSOUTH TELE INC J0010Brownfields · 650 ft
- SUPREME INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 700 ft
- VIKING LIFE SAVING EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 700 ft
- BELFOR USABrownfields · 700 ft
- CINTAS CORP - CINTAS NEW ORLEANS #544Brownfields · 750 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elmwood'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 Elmwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elmwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elmwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elmwood, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,011 sites within ~10 miles of Elmwood. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Elmwood
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 Elmwood average
Your land is one point inside Elmwood
Everything above resolves to Elmwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Elmwood Average
Elmwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Elmwood
- ●One soil character for all of Elmwood
- ●Frost dates read at Elmwood's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elmwood's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elmwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elmwood, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elmwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elmwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elmwood average
How we know this about Elmwood
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Jefferson 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Elmwood
When does frost risk typically end in Elmwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elmwood typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Elmwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elmwood typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elmwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elmwood sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 6, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elmwood?
The federal record around Elmwood is a meaningful one — 4,939 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,011), the nearest Brownfields 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 Elmwood?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elmwood's scale — its 9b band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elmwood'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 Elmwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elmwood's own scale — the 2,415 acres it covers and 4,939 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elmwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4,939 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elmwood, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elmwood's boundary and the 2,415 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elmwood's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elmwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elmwood's 2,415 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elmwood's 2,415 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elmwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,415 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Elmwood-wide figureread your own land →