Port Barre, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Barre, 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 Port Barre 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 Port Barre — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Port Barre — the short answer
Port Barre, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 690 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- St. Landry Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- St. Landry Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- St. Landry Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 690 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. Landry Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Port Barre's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Barre's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Barre
Each reading below is measured for Port Barre itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Barre runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from St. Landry Parish, the closest normal to Port Barre) — 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
MeasuredPort Barre 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 Port Barre is in
Port Barre sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Barre's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Landry Parish.
What Grows in Port Barre
Every plant below cleared Port Barre's own zone 9a and its 306-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Barre?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Port Barre
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Barre. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SL-242Nitrate · 200 ft
- SL-203Nitrate · 250 ft
- SL-5Nitrate · 400 ft
- Bubbies MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Southside OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Raphael Estilette Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Port Barre CanalUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Juniois MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HADLEYS RPRBrownfields · 950 ft
- Aguillard's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Cajun Tire LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- St Landry Parish Fire Protect 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Barre'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 Port Barre.
Total Sites
464
within ~10 miles of Port Barre
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Barre
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Barre
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Barre, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Port Barre. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Port Barre
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 Port Barre average
Your land is one point inside Port Barre
Everything above resolves to Port Barre as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 690 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Landry 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 Port Barre Average
Port Barre Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Port Barre
- ●One soil character for all of Port Barre
- ●Frost dates read at Port Barre's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Barre's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Barre
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Barre, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Barre averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Barre — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Barre average
How we know this about Port Barre
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. Landry 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 Port Barre
When does frost risk typically end in Port Barre?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Barre typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Port Barre?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Barre typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Barre?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Barre sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 22, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Barre?
The federal record around Port Barre is a meaningful one — 464 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), the nearest Nitrate 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 Port Barre?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Barre's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Barre'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 Port Barre’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Port Barre's own scale — the 690 acres it covers and 464 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Barre's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 464 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Barre, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Barre's boundary and the 690 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~306-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Barre's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Barre has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Landry Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Barre's 690 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Landry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Landry 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. Landry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Barre's 690 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Barre you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 690 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Port Barre-wide figureread your own land →