Powhatan, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Powhatan, 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 Powhatan 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 Powhatan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Powhatan — the short answer
Powhatan, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 344 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Natchitoches Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 344 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 Natchitoches Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Powhatan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Powhatan's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Powhatan
Each reading below is measured for Powhatan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPowhatan runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Natchitoches Parish, the closest normal to Powhatan) — 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
MeasuredPowhatan sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Powhatan is in
Powhatan sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Powhatan's own centroid rather than borrowed from Natchitoches Parish.
What Grows in Powhatan
Every plant below cleared Powhatan's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Powhatan?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Powhatan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Powhatan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Joes PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- Sam Mondello GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- Braucht JimUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Hilltop FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- TL James Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Paul Messenger FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Na-455Nitrate · 650 ft
- Estate of E S DickersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Nexus PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Na-116Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Na-411Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- Save Time Food StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Powhatan'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 Powhatan.
Total Sites
259
within ~10 miles of Powhatan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Powhatan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Powhatan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Powhatan, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 116 sites within ~10 miles of Powhatan. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Powhatan
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 Powhatan average
Your land is one point inside Powhatan
Everything above resolves to Powhatan as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 344 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Natchitoches 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 Powhatan Average
Powhatan Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Powhatan
- ●One soil character for all of Powhatan
- ●Frost dates read at Powhatan's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Powhatan's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Powhatan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Powhatan, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Powhatan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Powhatan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Powhatan average
How we know this about Powhatan
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 Natchitoches 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 Powhatan
When does frost risk typically end in Powhatan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Powhatan typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Powhatan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Powhatan typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Powhatan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Powhatan sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 19, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Powhatan?
The federal record around Powhatan is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (116), 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 Powhatan?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Powhatan's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Powhatan'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 Powhatan’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Powhatan's own scale — the 344 acres it covers and 259 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Powhatan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 259 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Powhatan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Powhatan's boundary and the 344 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Powhatan's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Powhatan has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Natchitoches Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Powhatan's 344 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Natchitoches County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Natchitoches 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 Natchitoches County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Powhatan's 344 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Powhatan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 344 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 Powhatan-wide figureread your own land →
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