Gray, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gray, 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 Gray 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 Gray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gray — the short answer
Gray, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- Terrebonne Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Terrebonne Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Terrebonne Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Terrebonne Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Gray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gray's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gray
Each reading below is measured for Gray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGray runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Terrebonne Parish, the closest normal to Gray) — 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
MeasuredGray 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 Gray is in
Gray sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Terrebonne Parish.
What Grows in Gray
Every plant below cleared Gray's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gray?
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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — 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 Gray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DPS-STATE POLICE TROOP CBrownfields · 100 ft
- LSP - Troop CUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Terrebonne Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Southland Boat ManufacturingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Martin Decker IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Gray Food Mart LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Gray Self ServeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SCHLUMBERGER FACILITYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY 1530Brownfields · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #11061Brownfields · 2300 ft
- KENWORTH OF SOUTH LOUISIANA, LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BECNEL RENTAL TOOLS LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gray'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 Gray.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gray, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 635 sites within ~10 miles of Gray. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Gray
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 Gray average
Your land is one point inside Gray
Everything above resolves to Gray as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Terrebonne 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 Gray Average
Gray Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Gray
- ●One soil character for all of Gray
- ●Frost dates read at Gray's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gray's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gray, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gray average
How we know this about Gray
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 Terrebonne 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 Gray
When does frost risk typically end in Gray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gray 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 Gray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gray typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gray sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Dec 2, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gray?
The federal record around Gray is a meaningful one — 1,093 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (635), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Gray?
From about Nov 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gray's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gray'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 Gray’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gray's own scale — the 7,347 acres it covers and 1,093 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,093 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gray, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gray's boundary and the 7,347 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gray's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gray has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Terrebonne Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gray's 7,347 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Terrebonne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Terrebonne 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 Terrebonne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gray's 7,347 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,347 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Gray-wide figureread your own land →