Kentwood, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kentwood, 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 Kentwood 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 Kentwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kentwood — the short answer
Kentwood, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Tangipahoa Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Tangipahoa Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Tangipahoa Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Tangipahoa Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kentwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kentwood's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kentwood
Each reading below is measured for Kentwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKentwood runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Tangipahoa Parish, the closest normal to Kentwood) — 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
MeasuredKentwood 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 Kentwood is in
Kentwood sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kentwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tangipahoa Parish.
What Grows in Kentwood
Every plant below cleared Kentwood's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kentwood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Kentwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kentwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bates Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SIMMONS TEXACOBrownfields · 1200 ft
- KENTWOOD HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1500 ft
- WHOLESALE NEW & USED TIRESBrownfields · 1700 ft
- AUTOZONE 3872Brownfields · 1700 ft
- KENTWOOD AUTO PLEXBrownfields · 1700 ft
- OCEANS BEHAVIORAL HOSPITAL OF KENTWOOD LLCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 9073Brownfields · 1700 ft
- RAY WHITE BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Gerald L DavisUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ExpresswayUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Market Max KentwoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kentwood'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 Kentwood.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Kentwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kentwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kentwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kentwood, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Kentwood. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Kentwood
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 Kentwood average
Your land is one point inside Kentwood
Everything above resolves to Kentwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tangipahoa 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 Kentwood Average
Kentwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kentwood
- ●One soil character for all of Kentwood
- ●Frost dates read at Kentwood's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kentwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kentwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kentwood, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kentwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kentwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kentwood average
How we know this about Kentwood
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 Tangipahoa 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 Kentwood
When does frost risk typically end in Kentwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kentwood typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Kentwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kentwood typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kentwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kentwood sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 19, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kentwood?
The federal record around Kentwood shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kentwood?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kentwood's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kentwood'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 Kentwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kentwood's own scale — the 4,550 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kentwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kentwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kentwood's boundary and the 4,550 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kentwood's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kentwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tangipahoa Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kentwood's 4,550 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tangipahoa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tangipahoa 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 Tangipahoa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kentwood's 4,550 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kentwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,550 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Kentwood-wide figureread your own land →
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