Gonzales, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gonzales, 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 Gonzales 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 Gonzales — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gonzales — the short answer
Gonzales, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 307 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Ascension Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Ascension Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~307
- Ascension Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Ascension Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gonzales's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gonzales's 307-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gonzales
Each reading below is measured for Gonzales itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGonzales runs about 307 days between hard freezes (read from Ascension Parish, the closest normal to Gonzales) — 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
MeasuredGonzales 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 Gonzales is in
Gonzales sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gonzales's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ascension Parish is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gonzales
Every plant below cleared Gonzales's own zone 9a and its 307-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gonzales?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Gonzales
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gonzales. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPECTRUM BIOTECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 550 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY CO #1213Brownfields · 700 ft
- ROSS DOWNING AUTOMOTIVE, LLCBrownfields · 700 ft
- Champions Tire & Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ROBERT TIRE SVC GOODYEARBrownfields · 800 ft
- Murphy Express #8696Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 PIPELINE - GONZALES MAINTENANCE OFFICEBrownfields · 850 ft
- WALGREEN DRUG STORE 11483Brownfields · 850 ft
- Kajon Foods #17Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Daigle Pontiac BuickUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CENTRAL GULF SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- Jumonville BakeryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gonzales'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 Gonzales.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gonzales
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gonzales
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gonzales, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gonzales — Brownfields (516 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (64 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gonzales
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 Gonzales average
Your land is one point inside Gonzales
Everything above resolves to Gonzales as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ascension Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Gonzales Average
Gonzales Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gonzales
- ●One soil character for all of Gonzales
- ●Frost dates read at Gonzales's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gonzales's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gonzales
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gonzales, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gonzales averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gonzales — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gonzales average
How we know this about Gonzales
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ascension 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Gonzales
When does frost risk typically end in Gonzales?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gonzales typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Gonzales?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gonzales typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 307 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gonzales?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gonzales sees about 307 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 24, about 272 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gonzales?
The federal record around Gonzales runs heavier than most — 1,027 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (516), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gonzales?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gonzales's scale — its 9a band and its 307-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gonzales'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 Gonzales’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gonzales's own scale — the 5,864 acres it covers and 1,027 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gonzales's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,027 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gonzales, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gonzales's boundary and the 5,864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~307-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gonzales sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gonzales has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ascension Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gonzales's 5,864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ascension County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ascension 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 Ascension County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gonzales's 5,864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gonzales you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,864 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Gonzales-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Wider growing context
What grows across LouisianaGonzales sits outside our named growing regions, so Louisiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides