Gretna, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gretna, 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 Gretna 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 Gretna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gretna — the short answer
Gretna, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Jefferson Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Gretna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gretna's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gretna
Each reading below is measured for Gretna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGretna runs about 336 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson Parish, the closest normal to Gretna) — 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
MeasuredGretna 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 Gretna is in
Gretna sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gretna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson Parish.
What Grows in Gretna
Every plant below cleared Gretna's own zone 9b and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gretna?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Gretna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gretna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRETNA CITY OF - WESTBANK EXPRESSWAY DEBRIS SITEBrownfields · 450 ft
- Acme Truck Line IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ACME TRUCK LINE INC.Brownfields · 600 ft
- Sears Roebuck & Co #1286Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Express Tech AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- EXPRESS TECH AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 850 ft
- I J AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- DIXIE MARKETING GROUP INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- FRANKLIN AUTO RPRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WalMart Neighborhood Market #5102Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RAYS AUTOMOTIVE COBrownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gretna'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 Gretna.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gretna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gretna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gretna, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,013 sites within ~10 miles of Gretna. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Gretna
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 Gretna average
Your land is one point inside Gretna
Everything above resolves to Gretna as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson 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 Gretna Average
Gretna Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Gretna
- ●One soil character for all of Gretna
- ●Frost dates read at Gretna's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gretna's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gretna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gretna, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gretna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gretna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gretna average
How we know this about Gretna
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 Jefferson 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 Gretna
When does frost risk typically end in Gretna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gretna typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Gretna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gretna typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gretna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gretna sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 6, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gretna?
The federal record around Gretna is a meaningful one — 5,003 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,013), 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 Gretna?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gretna's scale — its 9b band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gretna'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 Gretna’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gretna's own scale — the 2,583 acres it covers and 5,003 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gretna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 5,003 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gretna, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gretna's boundary and the 2,583 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gretna's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gretna has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gretna's 2,583 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gretna's 2,583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gretna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,583 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 Gretna-wide figureread your own land →