Sugartown, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sugartown, 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 Sugartown 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 Sugartown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sugartown — the short answer
Sugartown, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Beauregard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Beauregard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- Beauregard Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Beauregard Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Sugartown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sugartown's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sugartown
Each reading below is measured for Sugartown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSugartown runs about 305 days between hard freezes (read from Beauregard Parish, the closest normal to Sugartown) — 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
MeasuredSugartown 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 Sugartown is in
Sugartown sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sugartown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beauregard Parish.
What Grows in Sugartown
Every plant below cleared Sugartown's own zone 9a and its 305-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sugartown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 Sugartown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sugartown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Be-5764ZNitrate · 1300 ft
- Sugartown GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Sugar Town RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Be-432Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Be-445Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Al-78Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- Cooley's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Al-76Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- V-5948ZNitrate · 4.3 mi
- Al-404Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- Super Wye GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #18903Brownfields · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sugartown'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 Sugartown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sugartown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sugartown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sugartown, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Sugartown. 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 Sugartown
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 Sugartown average
Your land is one point inside Sugartown
Everything above resolves to Sugartown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Beauregard 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 Sugartown Average
Sugartown Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Sugartown
- ●One soil character for all of Sugartown
- ●Frost dates read at Sugartown's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sugartown's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sugartown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sugartown, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sugartown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sugartown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sugartown average
How we know this about Sugartown
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 Beauregard 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 Sugartown
When does frost risk typically end in Sugartown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sugartown typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Sugartown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sugartown typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 305 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sugartown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sugartown sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 23, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sugartown?
The federal record around Sugartown shows 96 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (62), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles 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 Sugartown?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sugartown's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sugartown'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 Sugartown’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sugartown's own scale — the 1,254 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sugartown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sugartown, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sugartown's boundary and the 1,254 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sugartown's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sugartown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Beauregard Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sugartown's 1,254 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beauregard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beauregard 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 Beauregard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sugartown's 1,254 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sugartown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,254 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Sugartown-wide figureread your own land →
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