Richmond County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Richmond County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Richmond County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Richmond County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richmond County — the short answer
Richmond County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 208K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 208K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Richmond County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richmond County's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Richmond County
Across a year, Richmond County accumulates about 5,395 growing degree days above 50°F, about 20 fewer than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 78 of Georgia’s 159 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,223 hours below 45°F, 87 more than the Georgia middle of 1,136. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Richmond County
Across Richmond County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Troup, Lakeland, and Orangeburg are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Richmond County
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Richmond County as well drained — but another 56% drains differently: 27% somewhat excessively drained, 11% poorly drained.
Troup is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Lakeland (9%) and Orangeburg (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Richmond County
Each reading below is measured for Richmond County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Richmond County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Richmond County runs about pH 5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredRichmond County runs about 284 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredRichmond County 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 Richmond County is in
Richmond County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Richmond County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Richmond County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 284-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Richmond County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 Dec 2 — 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.
Documented around Richmond County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Richmond County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 138 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Richmond County
USGS estimates 677 lb of Glyphosate on Richmond County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (564 lb) and 2,4-d (372 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Richmond County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Richmond County — 839 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 16 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Richmond County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Richmond County
Closest first, across Richmond County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALLYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NEED MORE KUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RICHMOND CO/FIRE STATION #8Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MCTEER FOOD & FUEL #5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- C T MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2723263Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FIRST VEHICLE SERVICES INC #49080Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALGREENS 15333Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- CROWN GA-506/ZIPPY MART #433Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #2465Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #2465Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE #3170Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richmond County'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 Richmond County.
Sources Checked
across Richmond County
Severity Distribution
across Richmond County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richmond County, two things run higher than the national average across Richmond County — Superfund (16 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (69 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Richmond County
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 Richmond County average
Your land is one point inside Richmond County
Everything above resolves to Richmond County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 208K acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Richmond County Average
Richmond County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Richmond County
- ●One soil character for all of Richmond County
- ●Frost dates read at Richmond County's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richmond County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Richmond County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richmond County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richmond County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richmond County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richmond County average
How we know this about Richmond County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Richmond County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Richmond County
When does frost risk typically end in Richmond County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond County 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.
How long is the growing season in Richmond County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richmond County sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 18, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richmond County?
The federal record around Richmond County runs heavier than most — 839 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (532), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Richmond County's scale — its 8b band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richmond County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Georgia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Richmond County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Richmond County's own scale — its own ~284-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 839 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richmond County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richmond County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~284-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Richmond CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 839 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Richmond County's boundary and the 207,590 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Richmond County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Richmond County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Richmond County — the ~284 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richmond County's 207,590 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 839 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Richmond Countyread your own land →