Livingston, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Livingston, 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 Livingston 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 Livingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Livingston — the short answer
Livingston, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Livingston Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Livingston Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Livingston Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Livingston Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Livingston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Livingston's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Livingston
Each reading below is measured for Livingston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLivingston runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Livingston Parish, the closest normal to Livingston) — 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
MeasuredLivingston 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 Livingston is in
Livingston sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Livingston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston Parish.
What Grows in Livingston
Every plant below cleared Livingston's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Livingston?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Livingston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Livingston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEAD BUSTERS INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Livingston Parish Sheriff's OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Livingston Fuel ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Li-73Nitrate · 2500 ft
- Livingston Town ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Dixie Electric Membership CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Livingston Stop-N-GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 7298Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LIVINGSTON PARISH SCHOOL BOARDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Livingston Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ILLINOIS CENTRAL RR DERAILMENT SITEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LEAD ABATEMENT TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Livingston'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 Livingston.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Livingston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Livingston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Livingston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Livingston — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (90 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Livingston
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 Livingston average
Your land is one point inside Livingston
Everything above resolves to Livingston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Livingston 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 Livingston Average
Livingston Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Livingston
- ●One soil character for all of Livingston
- ●Frost dates read at Livingston's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Livingston's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Livingston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Livingston, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Livingston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Livingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Livingston average
How we know this about Livingston
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 Livingston 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 Livingston
When does frost risk typically end in Livingston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Livingston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Livingston typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Livingston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Livingston sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 22, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Livingston?
The federal record around Livingston is a meaningful one — 306 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Brownfields 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 Livingston?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Livingston's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Livingston'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 Livingston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Livingston's own scale — the 2,063 acres it covers and 306 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Livingston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 306 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Livingston, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Livingston's boundary and the 2,063 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Livingston's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Livingston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Livingston Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Livingston's 2,063 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Livingston's 2,063 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Livingston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,063 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 Livingston-wide figureread your own land →
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