Lake Arthur, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Arthur, 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 Lake Arthur 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 Lake Arthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Arthur — the short answer
Lake Arthur, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 30
- Jefferson Davis Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Jefferson Davis Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Jefferson Davis Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Jefferson Davis Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lake Arthur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Arthur's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Arthur
Each reading below is measured for Lake Arthur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Arthur runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson Davis Parish, the closest normal to Lake Arthur) — 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
MeasuredLake Arthur 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 Lake Arthur is in
Lake Arthur sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Arthur's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson Davis Parish.
What Grows in Lake Arthur
Every plant below cleared Lake Arthur'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 Lake Arthur?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Lake Arthur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE ARTHUR JALH CLINICBrownfields · 150 ft
- HORNSBY LAWN & EQUIPMENT INCBrownfields · 600 ft
- Fletcher's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Roger Glenn BenoitUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FWS-LACASSINE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGESuperfund · 1200 ft
- Willis Paint & Body ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Shop-A-LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Broussard Service Station & ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Shop Rite #39Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- K&S Quick Stop LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BON AMIBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Rubens Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Arthur'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 Lake Arthur.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Arthur, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lake Arthur
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 Lake Arthur average
Your land is one point inside Lake Arthur
Everything above resolves to Lake Arthur as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson Davis 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 Lake Arthur Average
Lake Arthur Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lake Arthur
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Arthur
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Arthur's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Arthur's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Arthur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Arthur, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Arthur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Arthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Arthur average
How we know this about Lake Arthur
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 Jefferson Davis 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 Lake Arthur
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Arthur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Arthur typically lands around Jan 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Lake Arthur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Arthur typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Arthur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Arthur sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 30 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 20 to Nov 25, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Arthur?
The federal record around Lake Arthur is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lake Arthur?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Arthur's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Arthur'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 Lake Arthur’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lake Arthur's own scale — the 1,187 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Arthur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Arthur, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Arthur's boundary and the 1,187 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 Lake Arthur's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Arthur has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson Davis Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Arthur's 1,187 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson Davis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson Davis 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 Jefferson Davis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Arthur's 1,187 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Arthur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,187 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lake Arthur-wide figureread your own land →
More in Louisiana
Growing region