Sunset, 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 Sunset, 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 Sunset 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 Sunset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sunset — the short answer
Sunset, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- St. Landry Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- St. Landry Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- St. Landry Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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. Landry Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Sunset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunset's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunset
Each reading below is measured for Sunset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSunset runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from St. Landry Parish, the closest normal to Sunset) — 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
MeasuredSunset 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 Sunset is in
Sunset sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sunset's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: St. Landry Parish is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sunset
Every plant below cleared Sunset's own zone 9a and its 306-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunset?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Sunset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Evangeline Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Sunset Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Sunset City ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- St Landry Packing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SL-212Nitrate · 2100 ft
- SL-5336ZNitrate · 2300 ft
- SL-231Nitrate · 2600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #6908Brownfields · 2600 ft
- Southern ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Sunset Liquor StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Affordable Used Tires LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Evangeline Downs Race Track Manure SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunset'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 Sunset.
Total Sites
779
within ~10 miles of Sunset
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunset, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Sunset. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sunset
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 Sunset average
Your land is one point inside Sunset
Everything above resolves to Sunset as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Landry 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 Sunset Average
Sunset Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Sunset
- ●One soil character for all of Sunset
- ●Frost dates read at Sunset's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunset's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunset, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunset average
How we know this about Sunset
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. Landry 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 Sunset
When does frost risk typically end in Sunset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Sunset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunset sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 22, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunset?
The federal record around Sunset is a meaningful one — 779 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (314), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sunset?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunset's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunset'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 Sunset’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sunset's own scale — the 2,069 acres it covers and 779 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 779 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunset, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunset's boundary and the 2,069 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~306-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sunset sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sunset has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Landry Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunset's 2,069 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Landry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Landry 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. Landry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunset's 2,069 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,069 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sunset-wide figureread your own land →