Glencoe, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Glencoe, 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 Glencoe 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 Glencoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Glencoe — the short answer
Glencoe, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 424 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 424 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. Mary Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Glencoe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glencoe's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glencoe
Each reading below is measured for Glencoe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGlencoe runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from St. Mary Parish, the closest normal to Glencoe) — 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
MeasuredGlencoe 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 Glencoe is in
Glencoe sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glencoe's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Mary Parish.
What Grows in Glencoe
Every plant below cleared Glencoe's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glencoe?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — 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 Glencoe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glencoe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USAF AEROSTAT SITEBrownfields · 900 ft
- Glencoe Charter SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SM-59Nitrate · 1500 ft
- Kay TerryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Jacob's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Terry's SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SM-57UNitrate · 1.0 mi
- SM-35Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- McLean's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SM-18Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Bee's Convenience Store & CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SM-63ANitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glencoe'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 Glencoe.
Total Sites
214
within ~10 miles of Glencoe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glencoe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glencoe
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Glencoe
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 Glencoe average
Your land is one point inside Glencoe
Everything above resolves to Glencoe as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 424 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Mary 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 Glencoe Average
Glencoe Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Glencoe
- ●One soil character for all of Glencoe
- ●Frost dates read at Glencoe's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glencoe's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glencoe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glencoe, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glencoe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glencoe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glencoe average
How we know this about Glencoe
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. Mary 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 Glencoe
When does frost risk typically end in Glencoe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glencoe typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 14.
When is the first frost in Glencoe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glencoe typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glencoe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glencoe sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Dec 1, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glencoe?
The federal record around Glencoe is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Glencoe?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glencoe's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glencoe'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 Glencoe’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Glencoe's own scale — the 424 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glencoe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glencoe, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glencoe's boundary and the 424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glencoe's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Glencoe has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Mary Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glencoe's 424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Mary County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Mary 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. Mary County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glencoe's 424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glencoe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Glencoe-wide figureread your own land →