Hester, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Hester, 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 Hester 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 Hester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hester — the short answer
Hester, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 316 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- St. James Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- St. James Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~316
- St. James Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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. James Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Hester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hester's 316-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hester
Each reading below is measured for Hester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHester runs about 316 days between hard freezes (read from St. James Parish, the closest normal to Hester) — 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
MeasuredHester 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 Hester is in
Hester sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hester's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. James Parish.
What Grows in Hester
Every plant below cleared Hester's own zone 9b and its 316-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hester?
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 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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 Hester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SJ-197Nitrate · 1200 ft
- LOUQUES AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MOSAIC FERTILIZER LLC UNCLE SAM PLANTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- MOSAIC FERTILIZER LLC UNCLE SAM PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- SJ-189Nitrate · 2400 ft
- SJ-130Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SJ-200BNitrate · 0.8 mi
- SJ-200ANitrate · 0.8 mi
- Louque's AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SJ-198ANitrate · 0.9 mi
- SJ-198BNitrate · 0.9 mi
- SJ-195ANitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hester'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 Hester.
Total Sites
389
within ~10 miles of Hester
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hester, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hester — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hester
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 Hester average
Your land is one point inside Hester
Everything above resolves to Hester as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. James 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 Hester Average
Hester Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Hester
- ●One soil character for all of Hester
- ●Frost dates read at Hester's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hester's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hester, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hester average
How we know this about Hester
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. James 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 Hester
When does frost risk typically end in Hester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hester typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Hester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hester typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 316 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hester sees about 316 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 27, about 281 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hester?
The federal record around Hester is a meaningful one — 389 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (119), the nearest Nitrate 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 Hester?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hester's scale — its 9b band and its 316-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hester'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 Hester’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hester's own scale — the 2,215 acres it covers and 389 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 389 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hester, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hester's boundary and the 2,215 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~316-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hester's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hester has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. James Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hester's 2,215 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. James County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. James 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. James County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hester's 2,215 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,215 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Hester-wide figureread your own land →
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