New Iberia, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Iberia, 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 New Iberia 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 New Iberia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Iberia — the short answer
New Iberia, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- Iberia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- Iberia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- Iberia Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Iberia Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is New Iberia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Iberia's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Iberia
Each reading below is measured for New Iberia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Iberia runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from Iberia Parish, the closest normal to New Iberia) — 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
MeasuredNew Iberia 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 New Iberia is in
New Iberia sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at New Iberia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Iberia Parish is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in New Iberia
Every plant below cleared New Iberia's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Iberia?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — 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 New Iberia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Iberia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COASTAL COMPRESSION SVCBrownfields · 350 ft
- IBERIA PARISH SHERIFF'S OFFICEBrownfields · 400 ft
- DEROUEN CLEANERSBrownfields · 650 ft
- Acadiana Tire & Car CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Roy Berard & SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Hasty MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Tim's BeveragesUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VIATORS AUTO ELECTRICBrownfields · 900 ft
- Speedy MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CALL FREE MEDIA TECHNOLOGY INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- LOUISIANA WATER COMPANYBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Simon GlassUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Iberia'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 New Iberia.
Total Sites
875
within ~10 miles of New Iberia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Iberia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Iberia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Iberia, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 451 sites within ~10 miles of New Iberia. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 New Iberia
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 New Iberia average
Your land is one point inside New Iberia
Everything above resolves to New Iberia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Iberia Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 New Iberia Average
New Iberia Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across New Iberia
- ●One soil character for all of New Iberia
- ●Frost dates read at New Iberia's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Iberia's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Iberia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Iberia, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Iberia averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Iberia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Iberia average
How we know this about New Iberia
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Iberia 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 New Iberia
When does frost risk typically end in New Iberia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Iberia typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in New Iberia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Iberia typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Iberia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Iberia sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Dec 1, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Iberia?
The federal record around New Iberia is a meaningful one — 875 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (451), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 New Iberia?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Iberia's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Iberia'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 New Iberia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Iberia's own scale — the 7,130 acres it covers and 875 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Iberia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 875 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Iberia, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Iberia's boundary and the 7,130 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- New Iberia sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Iberia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Iberia Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Iberia's 7,130 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iberia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iberia 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 Iberia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Iberia's 7,130 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Iberia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,130 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 New Iberia-wide figureread your own land →