Lacombe, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lacombe, 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 Lacombe 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 Lacombe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lacombe — the short answer
Lacombe, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- St. Tammany Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- St. Tammany Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- St. Tammany Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 17K 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. Tammany Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lacombe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lacombe's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lacombe
Each reading below is measured for Lacombe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLacombe runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from St. Tammany Parish, the closest normal to Lacombe) — 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
MeasuredLacombe sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Lacombe is in
Lacombe sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lacombe's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Tammany Parish.
What Grows in Lacombe
Every plant below cleared Lacombe's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lacombe?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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 Lacombe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lacombe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LACOMBE MEDICAL CNTRBrownfields · 1200 ft
- J&S Bayou Gas & Go LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- A&L Enterprise LLC - A&L EnterpriseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Eagle Piston RingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- R&D AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Chotin Joseph Scott JrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BUDDYS AUTO RPRBrownfields · 2100 ft
- New Orleans A RcagUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Former Evangeline Refining CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Russell's Quick Stop LLC - Russell's Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Tony's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lacombe'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 Lacombe.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lacombe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lacombe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lacombe, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lacombe — PFAS (9 sites) and Brownfields (239 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Lacombe
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 Lacombe average
Your land is one point inside Lacombe
Everything above resolves to Lacombe as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 17K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Tammany 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 Lacombe Average
Lacombe Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lacombe
- ●One soil character for all of Lacombe
- ●Frost dates read at Lacombe's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lacombe's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lacombe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lacombe, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lacombe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lacombe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lacombe average
How we know this about Lacombe
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. Tammany 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 Lacombe
When does frost risk typically end in Lacombe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lacombe typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Lacombe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lacombe typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lacombe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lacombe sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 21, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lacombe?
The federal record around Lacombe runs heavier than most — 473 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (239), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lacombe?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lacombe's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lacombe'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 Lacombe’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lacombe's own scale — the 16,926 acres it covers and 473 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lacombe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 473 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lacombe, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lacombe's boundary and the 16,926 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lacombe's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lacombe has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Tammany Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lacombe's 16,926 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Tammany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Tammany 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. Tammany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lacombe's 16,926 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lacombe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,926 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Lacombe-wide figureread your own land →
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