Richland, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Richland, 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 Richland 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 Richland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richland — the short answer
Richland, Indiana: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 330 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 330 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 7a is Richland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richland's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richland
Each reading below is measured for Richland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichland runs about 231 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRichland sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Richland is in
Richland sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spencer County.
What Grows in Richland
Every plant below cleared Richland's own zone 7a and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Richland
Survey cells within 31 miles of Richland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 124 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICHLAND PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SIP-2 RICHLAND CITY, INDNitrate · 0.7 mi
- RICHLAND SO LO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- JIM WALKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SPENCER SALES & SERVICE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- LUCE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- IN5274009 SPENCER 01926 PRODUCTION WELL 3Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- RAIBLEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- South Spencer School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- JIMS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- HATFIELD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- J & M SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richland'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 Richland.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Richland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Richland — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Richland
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 Richland average
Your land is one point inside Richland
Everything above resolves to Richland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 330 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 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 Richland Average
Richland Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Richland
- ●One soil character for all of Richland
- ●Frost dates read at Richland's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richland's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richland, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richland average
How we know this about Richland
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 Richland’s own record; 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 Richland
When does frost risk typically end in Richland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richland typically lands around Mar 24, 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 Apr 14.
When is the first frost in Richland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richland typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richland sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richland?
The federal record around Richland shows 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Richland?
From about Oct 11 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 Nov 10 (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 Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richland's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richland'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 Richland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richland's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 330 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richland's boundary and the 330 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richland's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Richland checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richland's 330 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spencer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spencer County
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Spencer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richland's 330 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 330 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Richland-wide figureread your own land →