Louise, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Louise, 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 Louise 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 Louise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Louise — the short answer
Louise, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Wharton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Louise's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Louise's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Louise
Each reading below is measured for Louise itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLouise runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Wharton County, the closest normal to Louise) — 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
MeasuredLouise 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 Louise is in
Louise sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Louise's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wharton County.
What Grows in Louise
Every plant below cleared Louise's own zone 9a and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Louise?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Louise
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Louise. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRESHAM TRUCKINGBrownfields · 750 ft
- U MART 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- APPLING LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LOUISE ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SCHULZ EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- B & B SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MUSTANG CREEK BBQUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- H ROADESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CHROMCAK SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PRIMERA IGLESIA BAUTISTA DE LOUISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CROWELL DRILINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CIC CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Louise'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 Louise.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Louise
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Louise
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Louise
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Louise, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 47 sites within ~10 miles of Louise. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Louise
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 Louise average
Your land is one point inside Louise
Everything above resolves to Louise as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wharton County’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 Louise Average
Louise Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Louise
- ●One soil character for all of Louise
- ●Frost dates read at Louise's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Louise's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Louise
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Louise, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Louise averages can't show:
We read public map data around Louise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Louise average
How we know this about Louise
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 Wharton County’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 Louise
When does frost risk typically end in Louise?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Louise typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Louise?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Louise typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Louise?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Louise sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Louise?
The federal record around Louise shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Louise?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Louise's scale — its 9a band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Louise'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 Louise’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Louise's own scale — the 4,278 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Louise's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Louise, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Louise's boundary and the 4,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Louise's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Louise has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wharton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Louise's 4,278 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wharton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wharton County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wharton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Louise's 4,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Louise you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,278 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Louise-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLouise sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.