Garyville, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with okra, satsuma orange, live oak, and pecan — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Garyville, 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 Garyville 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 Garyville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garyville — the short answer
Garyville, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- St. John the Baptist Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 21
- St. John the Baptist Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- St. John the Baptist Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 St. John the Baptist Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Garyville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garyville's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garyville
Each reading below is measured for Garyville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGaryville runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from St. John the Baptist Parish, the closest normal to Garyville) — 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
MeasuredGaryville 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 Garyville is in
Garyville sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garyville's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. John the Baptist Parish.
What Grows in Garyville
Plants matched to Garyville's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Garyville?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 21 — 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 Garyville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garyville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL 14621Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Monicarlo Casino LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GULF COAST RESPONDERS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PETE'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SJB-13Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- INGRAM BARGE COMPANYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CROKETTS AUTO RPRBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Cargill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- INSPECTORATEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MT AIRY TERMINAL LLC - MT AIRY TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- MT AIRY TERMINAL LLC - MT AIRY TERMINALBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SIDNEYS ESGOBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garyville'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 Garyville.
Total Sites
537
within ~10 miles of Garyville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garyville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garyville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Garyville
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 Garyville average
Your land is one point inside Garyville
Everything above resolves to Garyville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. John the Baptist 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 Garyville Average
Garyville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Garyville
- ●One soil character for all of Garyville
- ●Frost dates read at Garyville's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garyville's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garyville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garyville, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garyville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garyville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garyville average
How we know this about Garyville
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 St. John the Baptist 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 Garyville
When does frost risk typically end in Garyville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garyville typically lands around Jan 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Garyville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garyville typically arrives around Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 7, so the watching starts about Nov 21 — about 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garyville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garyville sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Dec 7, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garyville?
The federal record around Garyville is a meaningful one — 537 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (203), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Garyville?
From about Nov 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garyville's scale — its 9a band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garyville'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 Garyville’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Garyville's own scale — the 9,143 acres it covers and 537 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garyville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 537 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garyville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garyville's boundary and the 9,143 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Garyville's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Garyville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. John the Baptist Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garyville's 9,143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. John the Baptist County
- The candidate plant list — Louisiana's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Louisiana
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. John the Baptist 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 St. John the Baptist County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garyville's 9,143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garyville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,143 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Garyville-wide figureread your own land →