Pineville, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pineville, 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 Pineville 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 Pineville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pineville — the short answer
Pineville, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Rapides Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Rapides Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Rapides Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Rapides Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Pineville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pineville's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pineville
Each reading below is measured for Pineville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPineville runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Rapides Parish, the closest normal to Pineville) — 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
MeasuredPineville 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 Pineville is in
Pineville sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pineville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rapides Parish.
What Grows in Pineville
Every plant below cleared Pineville's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pineville?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Pineville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pineville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brookshire Grocery #609Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Super Store #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 28 E WALK IN CLINICBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Hayes Manufacturing Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CLECO POWER LLC- PINEVILLE SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Dexter's Pit StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HAYES MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CLECO Corp - Pineville Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLECO PINEVILLE GEN OFFICEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PINEVILLE MARINEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Pineville ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RICHARD'S PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pineville'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 Pineville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pineville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pineville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Pineville
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 Pineville average
Your land is one point inside Pineville
Everything above resolves to Pineville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Rapides 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 Pineville Average
Pineville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pineville
- ●One soil character for all of Pineville
- ●Frost dates read at Pineville's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pineville's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pineville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pineville, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pineville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pineville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pineville average
How we know this about Pineville
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 Rapides 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 Pineville
When does frost risk typically end in Pineville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pineville typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Pineville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pineville typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pineville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pineville sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 17, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pineville?
The federal record around Pineville is a meaningful one — 1,311 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (499), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pineville?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pineville's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pineville'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 Pineville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pineville's own scale — the 8,071 acres it covers and 1,311 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pineville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,311 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pineville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pineville's boundary and the 8,071 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pineville's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pineville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Rapides Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pineville's 8,071 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rapides County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rapides 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 Rapides County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pineville's 8,071 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pineville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,071 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pineville-wide figureread your own land →
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