Marthaville, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Marthaville, 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 Marthaville 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 Marthaville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Marthaville — the short answer
Marthaville, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 722 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 722 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 Natchitoches Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Marthaville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marthaville's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marthaville
Each reading below is measured for Marthaville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMarthaville runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Natchitoches Parish, the closest normal to Marthaville) — 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
MeasuredMarthaville 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 Marthaville is in
Marthaville sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marthaville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Natchitoches Parish.
What Grows in Marthaville
Every plant below cleared Marthaville's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marthaville?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (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 Marthaville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marthaville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Marthaville General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Ajax Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Settles GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- H R Gamble GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Na-358Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Na-357Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- Na-356Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Na-355Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Pat's Short StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- W E Moore's GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Na-199Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Sa-5676ZNitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marthaville'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 Marthaville.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Marthaville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marthaville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marthaville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marthaville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Marthaville. 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 Marthaville
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 Marthaville average
Your land is one point inside Marthaville
Everything above resolves to Marthaville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 722 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Natchitoches 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 Marthaville Average
Marthaville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Marthaville
- ●One soil character for all of Marthaville
- ●Frost dates read at Marthaville's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marthaville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marthaville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marthaville, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marthaville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marthaville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marthaville average
How we know this about Marthaville
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 Natchitoches 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 Marthaville
When does frost risk typically end in Marthaville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marthaville typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Marthaville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marthaville 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 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marthaville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marthaville sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 19, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marthaville?
The federal record around Marthaville shows 93 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Marthaville?
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 Marthaville's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marthaville'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 Marthaville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Marthaville's own scale — the 722 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marthaville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marthaville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marthaville's boundary and the 722 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marthaville's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Marthaville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Natchitoches Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marthaville's 722 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Natchitoches County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Natchitoches 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 Natchitoches County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marthaville's 722 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marthaville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 722 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Marthaville-wide figureread your own land →
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