Vienna, Louisiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Vienna, 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 Vienna 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 Vienna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vienna — the short answer
Vienna, Louisiana: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Lincoln Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Lincoln Parish normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Lincoln 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 Lincoln Parish’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Vienna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vienna's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vienna
Each reading below is measured for Vienna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVienna runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Lincoln Parish, the closest normal to Vienna) — 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
MeasuredVienna 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 Vienna is in
Vienna sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vienna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln Parish.
What Grows in Vienna
Every plant below cleared Vienna's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Louisiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vienna?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Vienna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vienna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Vienna GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LOUS AUTOMOTIVE SVCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Mollys Beauty ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- L-130Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- L-131BNitrate · 2.4 mi
- L-131ANitrate · 2.4 mi
- Ruston Animal Clinic IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- LNCOLN ASPHALT PAVING INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #6745Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- Jefferson CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- EXXON CO USA 51922Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- Hilly JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vienna'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 Vienna.
Total Sites
465
within ~10 miles of Vienna
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vienna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vienna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vienna, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Vienna. 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 Vienna
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 Vienna average
Your land is one point inside Vienna
Everything above resolves to Vienna as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lincoln 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 Vienna Average
Vienna Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Vienna
- ●One soil character for all of Vienna
- ●Frost dates read at Vienna's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vienna's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vienna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vienna, Louisiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vienna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vienna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vienna average
How we know this about Vienna
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 Lincoln 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 Vienna
When does frost risk typically end in Vienna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vienna typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Vienna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vienna typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vienna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vienna sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 13, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vienna?
The federal record around Vienna is a meaningful one — 465 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Vienna?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vienna's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vienna'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 Vienna’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Vienna's own scale — the 2,219 acres it covers and 465 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vienna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 465 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vienna, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vienna's boundary and the 2,219 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vienna's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Vienna has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lincoln Parish
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vienna's 2,219 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vienna's 2,219 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vienna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,219 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Vienna-wide figureread your own land →
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