Montpelier, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Montpelier, 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 Montpelier 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 Montpelier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montpelier — the short answer
Montpelier, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- St. Helena Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- St. Helena Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- St. Helena Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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. Helena Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Montpelier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montpelier's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montpelier
Each reading below is measured for Montpelier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMontpelier runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from St. Helena Parish, the closest normal to Montpelier) — 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
MeasuredMontpelier 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 Montpelier is in
Montpelier sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Montpelier's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Helena Parish.
What Grows in Montpelier
Every plant below cleared Montpelier's own zone 9a and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montpelier?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Montpelier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montpelier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Montpelier Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Mervin J CarterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #12595Brownfields · 2500 ft
- Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Bear Creek Grocery & HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SouthsideUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SH-7Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Montpelier RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NorthsideUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LADOTD - Montpelier Project Engineer's OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SH-5344ZNitrate · 1.3 mi
- GULF SOUTH PIPELINE CO LLC - MONTPELIER COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montpelier'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 Montpelier.
Total Sites
226
within ~10 miles of Montpelier
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montpelier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montpelier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montpelier, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Montpelier. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Montpelier
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 Montpelier average
Your land is one point inside Montpelier
Everything above resolves to Montpelier as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Helena 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 Montpelier Average
Montpelier Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Montpelier
- ●One soil character for all of Montpelier
- ●Frost dates read at Montpelier's scale: Feb 17 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montpelier's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montpelier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montpelier, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montpelier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montpelier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montpelier average
How we know this about Montpelier
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. Helena 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 Montpelier
When does frost risk typically end in Montpelier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montpelier typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Montpelier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montpelier typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montpelier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montpelier sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 15, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montpelier?
The federal record around Montpelier is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Montpelier?
From about Oct 30 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 Nov 29 (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 Nov 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montpelier's scale — its 9a band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montpelier'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 Montpelier’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Montpelier's own scale — the 1,195 acres it covers and 226 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montpelier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 226 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montpelier, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montpelier's boundary and the 1,195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montpelier's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Montpelier has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Helena Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montpelier's 1,195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Helena County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Helena 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. Helena County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montpelier's 1,195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montpelier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,195 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 Montpelier-wide figureread your own land →
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