Turkey Creek, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Turkey Creek, 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 Turkey Creek 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 Turkey Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Turkey Creek — the short answer
Turkey Creek, Louisiana: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Evangeline Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Evangeline 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 Evangeline Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Turkey Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Turkey Creek's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Turkey Creek
Each reading below is measured for Turkey Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTurkey Creek runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Evangeline Parish, the closest normal to Turkey Creek) — 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
MeasuredTurkey Creek 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 Turkey Creek is in
Turkey Creek sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Turkey Creek's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Evangeline Parish is mostly Western Gulf Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Turkey Creek
Every plant below cleared Turkey Creek's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Turkey Creek?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 Turkey Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Turkey Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chapelle's Corner GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TURKEY CREEK MEDICAL CLINICBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Turkey Creek Grocery/ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Turkey Creek ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Berl Clark GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Turkey Creek Radio Relay StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Ev-684Nitrate · 1700 ft
- Horace Leger Scenic GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- J J Perry GrocUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Ev-686Nitrate · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #22336Brownfields · 2100 ft
- Ev-702Nitrate · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Turkey Creek'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 Turkey Creek.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Turkey Creek
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Turkey Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Turkey Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Turkey Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Turkey Creek. 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 Turkey Creek
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 Turkey Creek average
Your land is one point inside Turkey Creek
Everything above resolves to Turkey Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Evangeline 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 Turkey Creek Average
Turkey Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Turkey Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Turkey Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Turkey Creek's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Turkey Creek's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Turkey Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Turkey Creek, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Turkey Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Turkey Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Turkey Creek average
How we know this about Turkey Creek
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 Evangeline 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 Turkey Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Turkey Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Turkey Creek typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Turkey Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Turkey Creek typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Turkey Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Turkey Creek sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 24, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Turkey Creek?
The federal record around Turkey Creek shows 135 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Turkey Creek?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Turkey Creek's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Turkey Creek'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 Turkey Creek’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Turkey Creek's own scale — the 1,587 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Turkey Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Turkey Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Turkey Creek's boundary and the 1,587 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Turkey Creek sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Turkey Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Evangeline Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Turkey Creek's 1,587 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Evangeline County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Evangeline 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 Evangeline County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Turkey Creek's 1,587 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Turkey Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,587 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Turkey Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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