Lafayette, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lafayette, 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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lafayette — the short answer
Lafayette, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 36K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Lafayette Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Lafayette Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Lafayette Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 36K 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 Lafayette Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lafayette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lafayette's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lafayette
Each reading below is measured for Lafayette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLafayette runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Lafayette Parish, the closest normal to Lafayette) — 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
MeasuredLafayette 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 Lafayette is in
Lafayette sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lafayette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette Parish.
What Grows in Lafayette
Every plant below cleared Lafayette's own zone 9a and its 313-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lafayette?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 8 — 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 Lafayette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lafayette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lf-502Nitrate · 1100 ft
- LAFAYETTE BONE & JOINT CLINICBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MED HEALTH LTDBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Southwest ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Leblanc ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Hit & Run Food Stores #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- University of LA - LafayetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Fair Oaks Medical Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Lf-10030ZNitrate · 2100 ft
- DOCTOR'S OUTPATIENT SURGERY CENTERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ACADIANA RETINA CONSULTANTS LLCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Russell's Mobil Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lafayette'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 Lafayette.
Total Sites
2,696
within ~10 miles of Lafayette
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lafayette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lafayette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lafayette, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,453 sites within ~10 miles of Lafayette. 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 Lafayette
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 Lafayette average
Your land is one point inside Lafayette
Everything above resolves to Lafayette as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 36K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lafayette 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 Lafayette Average
Lafayette Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lafayette
- ●One soil character for all of Lafayette
- ●Frost dates read at Lafayette's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lafayette's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lafayette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lafayette, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lafayette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lafayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lafayette average
How we know this about Lafayette
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 Lafayette 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 Lafayette
When does frost risk typically end in Lafayette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lafayette 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 Lafayette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lafayette typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lafayette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lafayette sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 24, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lafayette?
The federal record around Lafayette is a meaningful one — 2,696 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,453), 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 Lafayette?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lafayette's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lafayette'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 Lafayette’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lafayette's own scale — the 35,960 acres it covers and 2,696 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lafayette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,696 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lafayette, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lafayette's boundary and the 35,960 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~313-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lafayette's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lafayette has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lafayette Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lafayette's 35,960 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lafayette's 35,960 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lafayette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,960 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 Lafayette-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Growing region