Hodge, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hodge, 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 Hodge 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 Hodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hodge — the short answer
Hodge, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 619 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Jackson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Jackson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Jackson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 619 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 Jackson Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hodge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hodge's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hodge
Each reading below is measured for Hodge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHodge runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Jackson Parish, the closest normal to Hodge) — 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
MeasuredHodge 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 Hodge is in
Hodge sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hodge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson Parish.
What Grows in Hodge
Every plant below cleared Hodge's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hodge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Hodge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hodge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ja-42Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Ja-22Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Continental Forest IndUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KENNETHS ALIGNMENT & BRAKE SVCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Advance Exxon Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GE RAILCAR REPAIR SVC CORPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- WestRock CP LLC - Hodge MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JACKSON PARISH SCHOOLS BUS MAINTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 2708Brownfields · 2100 ft
- Ira L BowmanUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WESTROCK CP LLC - HODGE MILLToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- WESTROCK CP LLC - HODGE MILLBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hodge'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 Hodge.
Total Sites
235
within ~10 miles of Hodge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hodge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hodge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hodge, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Hodge. 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 Hodge
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 Hodge average
Your land is one point inside Hodge
Everything above resolves to Hodge as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 619 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jackson 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 Hodge Average
Hodge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hodge
- ●One soil character for all of Hodge
- ●Frost dates read at Hodge's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hodge's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hodge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hodge, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hodge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hodge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hodge average
How we know this about Hodge
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 Jackson 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 Hodge
When does frost risk typically end in Hodge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hodge typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Hodge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hodge typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hodge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hodge sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 11, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hodge?
The federal record around Hodge is a meaningful one — 235 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (134), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Hodge?
From about Oct 26 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 Nov 25 (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 Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hodge's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hodge'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 Hodge’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hodge's own scale — the 619 acres it covers and 235 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hodge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 235 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hodge, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hodge's boundary and the 619 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hodge's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hodge has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jackson Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hodge's 619 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hodge's 619 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hodge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 619 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Hodge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Growing region
Nearby growing guides