Sun, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sun, 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 Sun 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 Sun — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sun — the short answer
Sun, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- St. Tammany Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- St. Tammany Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- St. Tammany Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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. Tammany Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Sun's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sun's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sun
Each reading below is measured for Sun itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSun runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from St. Tammany Parish, the closest normal to Sun) — 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
MeasuredSun 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 Sun is in
Sun sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sun's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: St. Tammany Parish is mostly Southern Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sun
Every plant below cleared Sun's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sun?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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 Sun
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sun. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARRIERE CONST CO INC LLCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BoachnerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Sun SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TPN Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Mizell Properties IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ST-600Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #21329Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- ST-599Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- Parish Line GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Robert's Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Bush Shell & DinerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9535Brownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sun'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 Sun.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sun
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sun
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sun, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Sun. 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 Sun
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 Sun average
Your land is one point inside Sun
Everything above resolves to Sun as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Tammany 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 Sun Average
Sun Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Sun
- ●One soil character for all of Sun
- ●Frost dates read at Sun's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sun's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sun
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sun, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sun averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sun — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sun average
How we know this about Sun
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. Tammany 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 Sun
When does frost risk typically end in Sun?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sun typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Sun?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sun typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sun?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sun sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 21, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sun?
The federal record around Sun is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Sun?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sun's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sun'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 Sun’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sun's own scale — the 2,732 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sun's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sun, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sun's boundary and the 2,732 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sun sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sun has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Tammany Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sun's 2,732 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Tammany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Tammany 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. Tammany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sun's 2,732 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sun you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,732 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Sun-wide figureread your own land →
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