Metairie, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Metairie, 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 Metairie 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 Metairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Metairie — the short answer
Metairie, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- Jefferson Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Metairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Metairie's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Metairie
Each reading below is measured for Metairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMetairie runs about 336 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson Parish, the closest normal to Metairie) — 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
MeasuredMetairie 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 Metairie is in
Metairie sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Metairie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson Parish.
What Grows in Metairie
Every plant below cleared Metairie's own zone 9b and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Metairie?
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 18 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Metairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Metairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POLUTION CONTROL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- PREMIER AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 700 ft
- Brothers Food Mart #118Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CLEAN FLEET AUTOBODYBrownfields · 800 ft
- Jf-169Nitrate · 950 ft
- Speedy PrintingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Icee VenturesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- The Times Picayune E JeffersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TD CLEANERS & ALTERATIONSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TIMES PICAYUNE INC E JEFF BUREAUBrownfields · 1200 ft
- EXXONMOBIL OIL CORP 99MBPBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Metairie'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 Metairie.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Metairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Metairie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Metairie, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,937 sites within ~10 miles of Metairie. 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 Metairie
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 Metairie average
Your land is one point inside Metairie
Everything above resolves to Metairie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson 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 Metairie Average
Metairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Metairie
- ●One soil character for all of Metairie
- ●Frost dates read at Metairie's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Metairie's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Metairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Metairie, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Metairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Metairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Metairie average
How we know this about Metairie
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 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 Metairie
When does frost risk typically end in Metairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Metairie typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Metairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Metairie 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 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Metairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Metairie sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 6, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Metairie?
The federal record around Metairie is a meaningful one — 4,873 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,937), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Metairie?
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 Metairie's scale — its 9b band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Metairie'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 Metairie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Metairie's own scale — the 14,822 acres it covers and 4,873 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Metairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4,873 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Metairie, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Metairie's boundary and the 14,822 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Metairie's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Metairie has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Metairie's 14,822 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Metairie's 14,822 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Metairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,822 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Metairie-wide figureread your own land →