New Orleans, LA · zone 9b · ~328 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in New Orleans.
In New Orleans, the typical last spring frost lands around Feb 3 and the first fall frost around Dec 28, giving you about 328 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 New Orleans, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Dec 30 to Mar 1 | Feb 10 to Apr 12 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Jan 1 to Feb 10 | Oct 14 to Dec 13 |
| Carrot | — | Jan 1 to Jan 29 | Oct 2 to Oct 28 |
| Bush Bean | — | Feb 3 to Mar 26 | Sep 13 to Oct 16 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | Feb 10 to May 12 | Aug 27 to Sep 27 |
| Pepper, bell | Jan 8 to Mar 1 | Feb 19 to Apr 12 | — |
| Kale | Nov 20 to Dec 13 | Jan 1 to Jan 24 | Sep 27 to Nov 12 |
| Spinach | — | Jan 1 to Jan 24 | Oct 14 to Dec 2 |
New Orleans sits in Zone 9b, 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 New Orleans 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 70112 in about 60 seconds.