Sicily Island, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sicily Island, 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 Sicily Island 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 Sicily Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sicily Island — the short answer
Sicily Island, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 367 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Catahoula Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Catahoula Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Catahoula Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 367 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 Catahoula Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Sicily Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sicily Island's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sicily Island
Each reading below is measured for Sicily Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSicily Island runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Catahoula Parish, the closest normal to Sicily Island) — 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
MeasuredSicily Island 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 Sicily Island is in
Sicily Island sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sicily Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Catahoula Parish.
What Grows in Sicily Island
Every plant below cleared Sicily Island's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sicily Island?
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 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. 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 Sicily Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sicily Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #20366Brownfields · 300 ft
- CATAHOULA PAR HOSP DIST 2Brownfields · 450 ft
- Ct-27Nitrate · 550 ft
- LS & JM Gravelle Inc UST Facility - Sicily IslandUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Ed's AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Quinton Green's ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SICILY ISL MEDICAL CNTRBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Ct-9Nitrate · 1800 ft
- Chitimacha Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DC Ag dba Big B SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Ct-15Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Ct-45Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sicily Island'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 Sicily Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sicily Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sicily Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sicily Island, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Sicily Island. 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 Sicily Island
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 Sicily Island average
Your land is one point inside Sicily Island
Everything above resolves to Sicily Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 367 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Catahoula 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 Sicily Island Average
Sicily Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sicily Island
- ●One soil character for all of Sicily Island
- ●Frost dates read at Sicily Island's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sicily Island's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sicily Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sicily Island, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sicily Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sicily Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sicily Island average
How we know this about Sicily Island
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 Catahoula 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 Sicily Island
When does frost risk typically end in Sicily Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sicily Island 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 Sicily Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sicily Island 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 Sicily Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sicily Island 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 Sicily Island?
The federal record around Sicily Island shows 103 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sicily Island?
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 Sicily Island's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sicily Island'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 Sicily Island’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sicily Island's own scale — the 367 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sicily Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sicily Island, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sicily Island's boundary and the 367 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sicily Island's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sicily Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Catahoula Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sicily Island's 367 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Catahoula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Catahoula 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 Catahoula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sicily Island's 367 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sicily Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 367 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Sicily Island-wide figureread your own land →
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