Gardere, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Gardere, 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 Gardere 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 Gardere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gardere — the short answer
Gardere, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- East Baton Rouge Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- East Baton Rouge Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- East Baton Rouge 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 East Baton Rouge Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gardere's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gardere's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gardere
Each reading below is measured for Gardere itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGardere runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from East Baton Rouge Parish, the closest normal to Gardere) — 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
MeasuredGardere 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 Gardere is in
Gardere sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gardere's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: East Baton Rouge Parish is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gardere
Every plant below cleared Gardere's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gardere?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Gardere
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gardere. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PYBURN ODOM BOAT SHOPBrownfields · 450 ft
- Save More Market #4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Circle K #1706Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Rain Bow Express Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 3276Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- ANALYTICAL & ENVIRONMENTAL TESTINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BURBANK VETERINARY HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Teledyne Odom Hydrographic SystemsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TELEDYNE ODOM HYDROGRAPHIC SYSTEMSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Circle K #9722Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CableworksUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ragusa's Meat MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gardere'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 Gardere.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gardere
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gardere
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gardere, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,718 sites within ~10 miles of Gardere. 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 Gardere
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 Gardere average
Your land is one point inside Gardere
Everything above resolves to Gardere as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from East Baton Rouge 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 Gardere Average
Gardere Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gardere
- ●One soil character for all of Gardere
- ●Frost dates read at Gardere's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gardere's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gardere
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gardere, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gardere averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gardere — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gardere average
How we know this about Gardere
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 East Baton Rouge 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 Gardere
When does frost risk typically end in Gardere?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gardere typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Gardere?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gardere typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gardere?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gardere sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 20, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gardere?
The federal record around Gardere is a meaningful one — 3,327 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,718), 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 Gardere?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gardere's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gardere'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 Gardere’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gardere's own scale — the 2,125 acres it covers and 3,327 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gardere's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 3,327 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gardere, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gardere's boundary and the 2,125 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gardere sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gardere has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom East Baton Rouge Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gardere's 2,125 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom East Baton Rouge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom East Baton Rouge 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 East Baton Rouge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gardere's 2,125 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gardere you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,125 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 Gardere-wide figureread your own land →
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