Gibsland, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Gibsland, 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 Gibsland 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 Gibsland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gibsland — the short answer
Gibsland, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- Bienville Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Bienville Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Bienville 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 Bienville Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Gibsland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gibsland's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gibsland
Each reading below is measured for Gibsland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGibsland runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Bienville Parish, the closest normal to Gibsland) — 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
MeasuredGibsland sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Gibsland is in
Gibsland sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gibsland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bienville Parish.
What Grows in Gibsland
Every plant below cleared Gibsland's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gibsland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Gibsland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gibsland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Testa's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ML Towns Enterprises IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Arrm Timber Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Bi-35Nitrate · 1500 ft
- Bi-103Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Bi-34Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Bi-145Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Bi-145BNitrate · 2000 ft
- Fast Pak #3Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Gibsland Youth Community Resource CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Bi-104Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Bi-163Nitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gibsland'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 Gibsland.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Gibsland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gibsland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gibsland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gibsland, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Gibsland. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gibsland
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 Gibsland average
Your land is one point inside Gibsland
Everything above resolves to Gibsland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bienville 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 Gibsland Average
Gibsland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Gibsland
- ●One soil character for all of Gibsland
- ●Frost dates read at Gibsland's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gibsland's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gibsland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gibsland, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gibsland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gibsland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gibsland average
How we know this about Gibsland
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 Bienville 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 Gibsland
When does frost risk typically end in Gibsland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gibsland typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Gibsland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gibsland typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gibsland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gibsland sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 11, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gibsland?
The federal record around Gibsland shows 192 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gibsland?
From about Oct 26 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 Nov 25 (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 Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gibsland's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gibsland'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 Gibsland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gibsland's own scale — the 1,685 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gibsland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gibsland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gibsland's boundary and the 1,685 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gibsland's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gibsland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bienville Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gibsland's 1,685 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bienville County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bienville 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 Bienville County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gibsland's 1,685 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gibsland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,685 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gibsland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Growing region
Nearby growing guides