Monterey, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Monterey, 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 Monterey 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 Monterey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monterey — the short answer
Monterey, 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 10
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Concordia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Concordia 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 Concordia Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Monterey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monterey's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monterey
Each reading below is measured for Monterey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMonterey runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Concordia Parish, the closest normal to Monterey) — 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
MeasuredMonterey 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 Monterey is in
Monterey sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Monterey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Concordia Parish.
What Grows in Monterey
Every plant below cleared Monterey'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 Monterey?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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 Monterey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monterey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Taunton's of Monterey LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL # 17404Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Closed SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- White's Auto StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Co-43Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- B&J Food StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Co-205Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Joe's Horseshoe MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Co-215Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- Paul's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- J W Calhoun & Sons FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- PJ's Grocery Corner StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monterey'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 Monterey.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monterey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monterey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monterey, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Monterey. 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 Monterey
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 Monterey average
Your land is one point inside Monterey
Everything above resolves to Monterey as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Concordia 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 Monterey Average
Monterey Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Monterey
- ●One soil character for all of Monterey
- ●Frost dates read at Monterey's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monterey's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monterey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monterey, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monterey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monterey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monterey average
How we know this about Monterey
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 Concordia 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 Monterey
When does frost risk typically end in Monterey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monterey typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Monterey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monterey typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monterey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monterey sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 21, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monterey?
The federal record around Monterey shows 32 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Monterey?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monterey's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monterey'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 Monterey’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Monterey's own scale — the 1,814 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monterey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monterey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monterey's boundary and the 1,814 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 Monterey's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Monterey has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Concordia Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monterey's 1,814 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Concordia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Concordia 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 Concordia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monterey's 1,814 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monterey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,814 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Monterey-wide figureread your own land →
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