Rich Hill, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rich 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 Rich 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 Rich Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rich Hill — the short answer
Rich Hill, Missouri: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 874 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- 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
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 874 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 6b is Rich Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rich Hill's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rich Hill
Each reading below is measured for Rich Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRich Hill runs about 224 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
MeasuredRich Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Rich Hill is in
Rich Hill sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rich Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bates County.
What Grows in Rich Hill
Every plant below cleared Rich Hill's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rich Hill?
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 Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Rich Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rich Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICH HILL MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FOUR RIVERS WILDLIFE AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- T38N R31W 08ACB1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OURS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PUMP N PETES #46Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB KILO-8Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BUTLER PWSPFAS · 1.8 mi
- T37N R31W 05AAA1Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- T38N R32W 29AAD1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- WHITEMAN AFB JULIET-9Underground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- T39N R31W 04DDD1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rich 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 Rich Hill.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Rich Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rich Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rich Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rich Hill, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Rich Hill. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rich 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 Rich Hill average
Your land is one point inside Rich Hill
Everything above resolves to Rich Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 874 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 Rich Hill Average
Rich Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rich Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Rich Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Rich Hill's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rich Hill's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rich Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rich Hill, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rich Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rich Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rich Hill average
How we know this about Rich 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 Rich Hill’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 Rich Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Rich Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rich Hill typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Rich Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rich Hill 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 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rich Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rich Hill sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rich Hill?
The federal record around Rich Hill shows 37 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rich Hill?
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 Rich Hill's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rich 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 Rich Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rich Hill's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 874 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rich Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rich Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 6 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rich Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rich Hill's boundary and the 874 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rich Hill's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rich Hill's 874 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bates County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bates County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bates County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rich Hill's 874 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rich 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 874 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rich Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Missouri
Wider growing context
What grows across MissouriRich Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Missouri as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides