Meraux, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Meraux, 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 Meraux 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 Meraux — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Meraux — the short answer
Meraux, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 338 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~338
- St. Bernard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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. Bernard Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Meraux's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meraux's 338-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meraux
Each reading below is measured for Meraux itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMeraux runs about 338 days between hard freezes (read from St. Bernard Parish, the closest normal to Meraux) — 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
MeasuredMeraux sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Meraux is in
Meraux sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Meraux's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Bernard Parish.
What Grows in Meraux
Every plant below cleared Meraux's own zone 9b and its 338-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Meraux?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Meraux
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meraux. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITTYS TIREBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SEARS 2385 6557 ROEBUCK & COBrownfields · 2400 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY CO #2258Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- JOE MENANT'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #5081Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WalMart Neighborhood Market #5081Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #13839Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Walgreen Drug Store 13586Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALGREEN DRUG STORE 13586Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- St Bernard Parish Fire Station #6Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COLLINS PIPELINE COMPANYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WINN DIXIE 1438Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meraux'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 Meraux.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meraux
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meraux
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meraux, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,569 sites within ~10 miles of Meraux. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Meraux
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 Meraux average
Your land is one point inside Meraux
Everything above resolves to Meraux as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Bernard 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 Meraux Average
Meraux Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Meraux
- ●One soil character for all of Meraux
- ●Frost dates read at Meraux's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meraux's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meraux
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meraux, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meraux averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meraux — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meraux average
How we know this about Meraux
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. Bernard 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 Meraux
When does frost risk typically end in Meraux?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meraux typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Meraux?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meraux typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 338 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meraux?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meraux sees about 338 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Dec 6, about 303 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meraux?
The federal record around Meraux is a meaningful one — 2,663 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,569), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Meraux?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meraux's scale — its 9b band and its 338-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meraux'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 Meraux’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Meraux's own scale — the 2,655 acres it covers and 2,663 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meraux's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,663 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meraux, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meraux's boundary and the 2,655 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~338-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Meraux's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Meraux has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Bernard Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Meraux's 2,655 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Bernard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Bernard 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. Bernard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meraux's 2,655 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meraux you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,655 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Meraux-wide figureread your own land →