Richmond Hill, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Richmond Hill, 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 Richmond Hill 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 Richmond Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richmond Hill — the short answer
Richmond Hill, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Bryan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Bryan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Richmond Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richmond Hill's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richmond Hill
Each reading below is measured for Richmond Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRichmond Hill runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Bryan County, the closest normal to Richmond Hill) — 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 Hill 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 Richmond Hill is in
Richmond Hill sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richmond Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bryan County.
What Grows in Richmond Hill
Every plant below cleared Richmond Hill's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richmond Hill?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Richmond Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richmond Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 35P109Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 35P125Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- STRICK TEXACO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 35P128Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 1154 PUBLIX AT RICHMOND HILL PLANTATIONBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- FORD PLANTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- THE SOMMER COMPANY OFFICEBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- EL CHEAPO #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PARKERS #26Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TRAVEL CENTERS OF AMERICAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GILL'S GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CHUS OF RICHMOND HILL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richmond Hill'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 Hill.
Total Sites
154
within ~10 miles of Richmond Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richmond Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richmond Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richmond Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Richmond Hill — PFAS (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (108 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Richmond Hill
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 Hill average
Your land is one point inside Richmond Hill
Everything above resolves to Richmond Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bryan County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Richmond Hill Average
Richmond Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Richmond Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Richmond Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Richmond Hill's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richmond Hill's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richmond Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richmond Hill, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richmond Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richmond Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richmond Hill average
How we know this about Richmond Hill
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bryan 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Richmond Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Richmond Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond Hill typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Richmond Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond Hill typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richmond Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richmond Hill sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 24, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richmond Hill?
The federal record around Richmond Hill is a meaningful one — 154 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), the nearest Nitrate 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 Richmond Hill?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richmond Hill's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richmond Hill'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 Richmond Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Richmond Hill's own scale — the 15,227 acres it covers and 154 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richmond Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 154 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richmond Hill, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richmond Hill's boundary and the 15,227 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richmond Hill's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Richmond Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bryan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richmond Hill's 15,227 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bryan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bryan County
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bryan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richmond Hill's 15,227 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richmond Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,227 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Richmond Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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