Baton Rouge, LA · zone 9a · ~271 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in Baton Rouge.
In Baton Rouge, the typical last spring frost lands around Feb 27 and the first fall frost around Nov 25, giving you about 271 frost-free days. Cool-season crops go out before the last frost; warm-season crops wait until after it.
The 2026 windows
Sow dates for Baton Rouge, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Jan 23 to Mar 25 | Mar 6 to May 6 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Jan 20 to Mar 6 | Sep 11 to Nov 10 |
| Carrot | — | Jan 20 to Feb 22 | Aug 30 to Sep 25 |
| Bush Bean | — | Feb 27 to Apr 19 | Aug 11 to Sep 13 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | Mar 6 to Jun 5 | Jul 25 to Aug 25 |
| Pepper, bell | Feb 1 to Mar 25 | Mar 15 to May 6 | — |
| Kale | Dec 9 to Jan 6 | Jan 20 to Feb 17 | Aug 25 to Oct 10 |
| Spinach | — | Jan 6 to Feb 17 | Sep 11 to Oct 30 |
Baton Rouge sits in Zone 9a, but two gardens in the same city can be a week or two apart. The planner works from your ZIP code's frost dates, not the zone, so the dates land right for your block, not the metro average.
Build your Baton Rouge garden plan.
Tell the free planner what you want to eat and who you're feeding. It returns plant counts, spacing, and frost-safe sow dates for ZIP 70802 in about 60 seconds.