Goldonna, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goldonna, 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 Goldonna 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 Goldonna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Goldonna — the short answer
Goldonna, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Natchitoches Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Goldonna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goldonna's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goldonna
Each reading below is measured for Goldonna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGoldonna runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Natchitoches Parish, the closest normal to Goldonna) — 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
MeasuredGoldonna 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 Goldonna is in
Goldonna sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goldonna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Natchitoches Parish.
What Grows in Goldonna
Every plant below cleared Goldonna's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goldonna?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Goldonna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goldonna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Jones GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Na-239Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Na-370Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Na-347Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Na-534Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Country Folk Community StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Cloud ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Na-236Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Na-237Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- W-5135ZNitrate · 3.9 mi
- BLACK LAKE GAS PLANTBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- GULF SOUTH PIPELINE CO LLC - CLARENCE COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goldonna'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 Goldonna.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goldonna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goldonna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goldonna, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Goldonna. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Goldonna
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 Goldonna average
Your land is one point inside Goldonna
Everything above resolves to Goldonna as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Natchitoches 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 Goldonna Average
Goldonna Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Goldonna
- ●One soil character for all of Goldonna
- ●Frost dates read at Goldonna's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goldonna's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goldonna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goldonna, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goldonna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goldonna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goldonna average
How we know this about Goldonna
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 Natchitoches 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 Goldonna
When does frost risk typically end in Goldonna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goldonna typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Goldonna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goldonna typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goldonna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goldonna sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 19, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goldonna?
The federal record around Goldonna shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Goldonna?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goldonna's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goldonna'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 Goldonna’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Goldonna's own scale — the 8,365 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goldonna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goldonna, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goldonna's boundary and the 8,365 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goldonna's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Goldonna has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Natchitoches Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goldonna's 8,365 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Natchitoches County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Natchitoches 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 Natchitoches County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goldonna's 8,365 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goldonna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,365 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Goldonna-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Growing region