Richardson County, in Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Richardson County lies within the Southeast Nebraska / Omaha-Lincoln Loess Corridor — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Richardson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Richardson County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Richardson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richardson County — the short answer
Richardson County, Nebraska: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 353K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 353K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Richardson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richardson County's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Richardson County
Across a year, Richardson County accumulates about 3,458 growing degree days above 50°F, about 618 more than the middle Nebraska county — ahead of every other Nebraska county. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Richardson County
Across Richardson County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Wymore, Monona, and Pohocco are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
44%
Hydric soils
10%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Richardson County
The USDA soil survey maps 51% of Richardson County as well drained — but another 48% drains differently: 35% moderately well drained, 10% poorly drained.
Wymore is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Monona (9%) and Pohocco (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Richardson County
Each reading below is measured for Richardson County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Richardson County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Richardson County runs about pH 6.0–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredRichardson County runs about 200 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
MeasuredRichardson County 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 Richardson County is in
Richardson County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Richardson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Richardson County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 200-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Richardson County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What gets applied to farmland in Richardson County
USGS estimates 263,414 lb of Glyphosate on Richardson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (114,060 lb) and Acephate (107,148 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Richardson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Richardson County — 51 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Richardson County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Richardson County
Closest first, across Richardson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E & S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LARRY'S AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE COMPANY LPBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- RICHARDSON COUNTY DEPT OF ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- AIRLANCOBrownfields · 6.8 mi
- COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENTER INC.Brownfields · 6.9 mi
- 1N 14E14DD 1Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- CITY OF FALLS CITY POWER PLANTBrownfields · 7.2 mi
- ARMBRUSTER MOTOR COBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- MR AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- RICHARDSON COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- SAPP BROS 66 FOOD PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richardson County'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 Richardson County.
Total Sites
51
across Richardson County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Richardson County
Severity Distribution
across Richardson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richardson County, two things run higher than the national average across Richardson County — Nitrate (18 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Richardson County
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 Richardson County average
Your land is one point inside Richardson County
Everything above resolves to Richardson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 353K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Richardson County Average
Richardson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Richardson County
- ●One soil character for all of Richardson County
- ●Frost dates read at Richardson County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richardson County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Richardson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richardson County, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richardson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richardson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richardson County average
How we know this about Richardson County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Richardson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Richardson County
When does frost risk typically end in Richardson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richardson County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Richardson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richardson County sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 9, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richardson County?
The federal record around Richardson County shows 51 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Richardson County's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richardson County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Nebraska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Richardson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Richardson County's own scale — its own ~200-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 51 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richardson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richardson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Richardson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 51 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Richardson County's boundary and the 353,178 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Richardson County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Richardson County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Richardson County — the ~200 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richardson County's 353,178 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 51 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Richardson Countyread your own land →