New Roads, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 New Roads, 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 Roads 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 Roads — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Roads — the short answer
New Roads, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Pointe Coupee Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Pointe Coupee Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- Pointe Coupee Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Pointe Coupee Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is New Roads's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Roads's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Roads
Each reading below is measured for New Roads itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Roads runs about 305 days between hard freezes (read from Pointe Coupee Parish, the closest normal to New Roads) — 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 Roads 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 New Roads is in
New Roads sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Roads's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pointe Coupee Parish.
What Grows in New Roads
Every plant below cleared New Roads's own zone 9a and its 305-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Roads?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 New Roads
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Roads. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- False River Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Olinde's HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Good Gulf SeafoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Kyle Abdul AdamsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Joe's TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Tractor Supply Co #1810Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NEW ROADS MOTOR CO.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- New Roads Motors CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY CO #1810Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- Donald ZaunbrecherUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GREMILLIONS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- LA TECH COLLEGE JUMONVILLE NEW ROADSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Roads'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 Roads.
Total Sites
307
within ~10 miles of New Roads
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Roads
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Roads
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Roads, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Roads — Nitrate (118 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in New Roads
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 Roads average
Your land is one point inside New Roads
Everything above resolves to New Roads as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pointe Coupee 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 Roads Average
New Roads Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across New Roads
- ●One soil character for all of New Roads
- ●Frost dates read at New Roads's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Roads's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Roads
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Roads, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Roads averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Roads — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Roads average
How we know this about New Roads
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 Pointe Coupee 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 Roads
When does frost risk typically end in New Roads?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Roads typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in New Roads?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Roads typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 305 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Roads?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Roads sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 23, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Roads?
The federal record around New Roads is a meaningful one — 307 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 New Roads?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Roads's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Roads'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 Roads’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Roads's own scale — the 2,932 acres it covers and 307 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Roads's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 307 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Roads, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Roads's boundary and the 2,932 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Roads's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Roads has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pointe Coupee Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Roads's 2,932 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pointe Coupee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pointe Coupee 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 Pointe Coupee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Roads's 2,932 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Roads you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,932 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 New Roads-wide figureread your own land →
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