Urania, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Urania, 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 Urania 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 Urania — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Urania — the short answer
Urania, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 877 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- LaSalle Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- LaSalle Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- LaSalle Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 877 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 LaSalle Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Urania's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Urania's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Urania
Each reading below is measured for Urania itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUrania runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from LaSalle Parish, the closest normal to Urania) — 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
MeasuredUrania 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 Urania is in
Urania sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Urania's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle Parish.
What Grows in Urania
Every plant below cleared Urania's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Urania?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Urania
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Urania. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ivy's Urania General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Powells GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Pal'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LASALLE BIOENERGY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- LASALLE BIOENERGY LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- La-86Nitrate · 1300 ft
- Urania Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CAVENHAM FOREST INDUSTRIES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- CAVENHAM FOREST INDUSTRIES LLCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- La-36Nitrate · 2600 ft
- LASALLE LUMBER CO LLC - URANIA SAWMILLToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- La-35Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Urania'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 Urania.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of Urania
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Urania
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Urania
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Urania, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 100 sites within ~10 miles of Urania. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Urania
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 Urania average
Your land is one point inside Urania
Everything above resolves to Urania as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 877 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from LaSalle 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 Urania Average
Urania Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Urania
- ●One soil character for all of Urania
- ●Frost dates read at Urania's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Urania's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Urania
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Urania, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Urania averages can't show:
We read public map data around Urania — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Urania average
How we know this about Urania
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 LaSalle 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 Urania
When does frost risk typically end in Urania?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Urania typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Urania?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Urania typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Urania?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Urania sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 14, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Urania?
The federal record around Urania is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Urania?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Urania's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Urania'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 Urania’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Urania's own scale — the 877 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Urania's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Urania, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Urania's boundary and the 877 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Urania's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Urania has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom LaSalle Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Urania's 877 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Urania's 877 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Urania you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 877 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Urania-wide figureread your own land →
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