Richmond, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Richmond, 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 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 — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richmond — the short answer
Richmond, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Richmond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richmond's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richmond
Each reading below is measured for Richmond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichmond runs about 221 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
MeasuredRichmond 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 Richmond is in
Richmond sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richmond's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Richmond
Every plant below cleared Richmond's own zone 7a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richmond?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Richmond
Survey cells within 31 miles of Richmond checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 75 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richmond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richmond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pattie A Clay HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Mom & Toms Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ENERSYS DELAWARE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- ENERSYS DELAWARE INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) Main CampusUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Bob Riley Distributors Inc Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- University Shell Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Pitstop GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Former Richmond Ford Lincoln MercuryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CSX Transporation UST SiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Goodyear Auto Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Speedway #9711Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richmond'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.
Total Sites
255
within ~10 miles of Richmond
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richmond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richmond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richmond, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Richmond — Superfund (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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
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 average
Your land is one point inside Richmond
Everything above resolves to Richmond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 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 Average
Richmond Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Richmond
- ●One soil character for all of Richmond
- ●Frost dates read at Richmond's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richmond's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richmond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richmond, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richmond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richmond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richmond average
How we know this about Richmond
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 Richmond’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 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
When does frost risk typically end in Richmond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Richmond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richmond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richmond sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richmond?
The federal record around Richmond is a meaningful one — 255 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (192), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richmond's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richmond'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’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richmond's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,054 acres it covers and 255 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richmond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richmond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 255 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richmond, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richmond's boundary and the 14,054 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richmond's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Richmond 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 Richmond's 14,054 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richmond's 14,054 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richmond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,054 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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-wide figureread your own land →
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