Tallulah, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tallulah, 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 Tallulah 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 Tallulah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tallulah — the short answer
Tallulah, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Madison Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Madison Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Madison Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Madison Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Tallulah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tallulah's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tallulah
Each reading below is measured for Tallulah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTallulah runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Madison Parish, the closest normal to Tallulah) — 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
MeasuredTallulah 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 Tallulah is in
Tallulah sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tallulah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison Parish.
What Grows in Tallulah
Every plant below cleared Tallulah's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tallulah?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Tallulah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tallulah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Yerger Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Rayville Compress Warehouse IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Bellsouth Telecommunications Inc K4239Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MADISON PARISH SCHOOL BOARDBrownfields · 750 ft
- Closed LocationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Ma-1Nitrate · 950 ft
- Bhramani Inc dba Amoco DowntownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Circle K Stores Inc #2723450Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Tallulah Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Capital BankUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Texaco Robo WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JD Used Tire StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tallulah'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 Tallulah.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Tallulah
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tallulah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tallulah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tallulah, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Tallulah. 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 Tallulah
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 Tallulah average
Your land is one point inside Tallulah
Everything above resolves to Tallulah as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madison Parish’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Tallulah Average
Tallulah Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tallulah
- ●One soil character for all of Tallulah
- ●Frost dates read at Tallulah's scale: Feb 16 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tallulah's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tallulah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tallulah, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tallulah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tallulah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tallulah average
How we know this about Tallulah
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Madison 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Tallulah
When does frost risk typically end in Tallulah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tallulah 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 Tallulah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tallulah typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tallulah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tallulah sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 16, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tallulah?
The federal record around Tallulah shows 127 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Tallulah?
From about Oct 31 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 Nov 30 (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 Nov 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tallulah's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tallulah'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 Tallulah’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tallulah's own scale — the 1,781 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tallulah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tallulah, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tallulah's boundary and the 1,781 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tallulah's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tallulah has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madison Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tallulah's 1,781 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tallulah's 1,781 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tallulah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,781 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Tallulah-wide figureread your own land →
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