Richland, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, lavender, 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.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richland — the short answer
Richland, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 650 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 650 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 6a is Richland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richland's 202-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 202 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 6a.
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 Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kalamazoo County.
What Grows in Richland
Every plant below cleared Richland's own zone 6a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan 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 Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Richland, first recorded 2023. 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.
- Former Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Americar Inc/Senior Oil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Lights LandscapeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GULL LAKE SCHOOLS, KELLOGG ELEMENTARYPFAS · 2500 ft
- KALAMAZOOPFAS · 2500 ft
- GULL LAKE DENTAL CARE PCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Circle K 6302Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MAC'S CONVENIENCE STORES LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PROMED PHYSICIANS - BORGESSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Richland Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PRODUCTION PLATED PLASTICS INC (SIA)Superfund · 1.0 mi
- PRODUCTION PLATED PLASTICS INC (SIA)Brownfields · 1.0 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.
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 — Toxics Release Inventory (74 sites) and Superfund (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
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 650 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 6a, averaged across Richland
- ●One soil character for all of Richland
- ●Frost dates read at Richland's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richland's 6a
- ✓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, Michigan — 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 Apr 14, 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 May 5.
When is the first frost in Richland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richland typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richland sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 19, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richland?
The federal record around Richland runs heavier than most — 977 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (458), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Richland?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richland's scale — its 6a band and its 202-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 ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 650 acres it covers and 977 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 2 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 977 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richland's boundary and the 650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richland's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Richlandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richland's 650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kalamazoo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kalamazoo County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Kalamazoo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richland's 650 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 650 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganRichland sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides