Richland, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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, fig, 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.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richland — the short answer
Richland, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Rankin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Richland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richland's 278-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
From county recordsRichland runs about 278 days between hard freezes (read from Rankin County, the closest normal to Richland) — 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
MeasuredRichland 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 Richland is in
Richland sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Rankin County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Richland
Every plant below cleared Richland's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi 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 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 Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
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 ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- The Boot StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Race Way #6941Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Richland AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Quik Fill IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Capital MotorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Southside ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MISSISSIPPI ROAD SUPPLY COMPANYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CITY OF RICHLANDPFAS · 1800 ft
- SOUTHERN RANKIN W/A #2 PLAINPFAS · 1800 ft
- Crystal Oil StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WHITE CAP, LTD. (WL-4)Brownfields · 2100 ft
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, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Richland. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
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, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Rankin 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 Richland Average
Richland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Richland
- ●One soil character for all of Richland
- ●Frost dates read at Richland's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richland's 8b
- ✓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, Mississippi — 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 city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Rankin 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 Richland
When does frost risk typically end in Richland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richland 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.
When is the first frost in Richland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richland typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richland sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 12, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richland?
The federal record around Richland is a meaningful one — 1,368 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (827), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Richland?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richland's scale — its 8b band and its 278-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
5 of the readings below were taken at Richland's own scale — the 8,016 acres it covers and 1,368 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,368 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richland's boundary and the 8,016 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Richland sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Richland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Rankin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richland's 8,016 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rankin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rankin County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Rankin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richland's 8,016 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 8,016 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiRichland sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.