Prospect, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prospect, 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 Prospect 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 Prospect — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prospect — the short answer
Prospect, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 945 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Grant Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Grant Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Grant Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 945 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 Grant Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Prospect's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prospect's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prospect
Each reading below is measured for Prospect itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsProspect runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Grant Parish, the closest normal to Prospect) — 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
MeasuredProspect 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 Prospect is in
Prospect sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prospect's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant Parish.
What Grows in Prospect
Every plant below cleared Prospect's own zone 9a and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prospect?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Prospect
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prospect. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL #17303Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Fuel Plus TooUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Cougar Stop Convenience Store - Restaurant - Pinehights Subdivision - WWTP ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Gary CrumpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- G-230Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- D & J TIRE INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- R-876ANitrate · 2.3 mi
- R-876BNitrate · 2.3 mi
- MARLER FORD CO INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Former WalMart Store #75Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Carroll Johnson Building ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DRESSER INC - GE OIL & GASToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prospect'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 Prospect.
Total Sites
784
within ~10 miles of Prospect
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prospect
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prospect
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prospect, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 276 sites within ~10 miles of Prospect. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Prospect
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 Prospect average
Your land is one point inside Prospect
Everything above resolves to Prospect as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 945 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grant 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 Prospect Average
Prospect Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Prospect
- ●One soil character for all of Prospect
- ●Frost dates read at Prospect's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prospect's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prospect
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prospect, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prospect averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prospect — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prospect average
How we know this about Prospect
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 Grant 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 Prospect
When does frost risk typically end in Prospect?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prospect typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Prospect?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prospect typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prospect?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prospect sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prospect?
The federal record around Prospect is a meaningful one — 784 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (276), the nearest Brownfields 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 Prospect?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prospect's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prospect'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 Prospect’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Prospect's own scale — the 945 acres it covers and 784 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prospect's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 784 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prospect, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prospect's boundary and the 945 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prospect's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Prospect has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grant Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prospect's 945 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prospect's 945 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prospect you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 945 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Prospect-wide figureread your own land →
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