Patterson, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Patterson, 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 Patterson 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 Patterson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Patterson — the short answer
Patterson, Louisiana: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- St. Mary Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 St. Mary Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Patterson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Patterson's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Patterson
Each reading below is measured for Patterson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPatterson runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from St. Mary Parish, the closest normal to Patterson) — 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
MeasuredPatterson 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 Patterson is in
Patterson sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Patterson's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Mary Parish.
What Grows in Patterson
Every plant below cleared Patterson'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 Patterson?
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 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Patterson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Patterson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Circle K #6836Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SOUTHERN CYCLES SPECBrownfields · 450 ft
- OMEGA WASTE MANAGEMENT, INC.Brownfields · 550 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 2321Brownfields · 800 ft
- CLECO Sevice StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Patterson Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CAMERON INTERNATIONAL INC - PATTERSONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Stazione #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Rentrop's ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BellSouth Telecommunications - Pasnlama - J3377Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- F C Felterman JrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MARINE TRANSPORTATION SVC INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Patterson'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 Patterson.
Total Sites
433
within ~10 miles of Patterson
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Patterson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Patterson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Patterson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Patterson — Brownfields (276 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Patterson
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 Patterson average
Your land is one point inside Patterson
Everything above resolves to Patterson as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Mary 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 Patterson Average
Patterson Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Patterson
- ●One soil character for all of Patterson
- ●Frost dates read at Patterson's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Patterson's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Patterson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Patterson, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Patterson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Patterson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Patterson average
How we know this about Patterson
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 St. Mary 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 Patterson
When does frost risk typically end in Patterson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Patterson 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 Patterson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Patterson 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 Patterson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Patterson 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 Patterson?
The federal record around Patterson is a meaningful one — 433 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (276), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Patterson?
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 Patterson's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Patterson'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 Patterson’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Patterson's own scale — the 1,615 acres it covers and 433 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Patterson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 433 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Patterson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Patterson's boundary and the 1,615 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Patterson's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Patterson has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Mary Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Patterson's 1,615 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Mary County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Mary 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. Mary County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Patterson's 1,615 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Patterson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,615 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Patterson-wide figureread your own land →