Richmond County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Richmond County lies within New York City metro — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Richmond County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Richmond 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 Richmond County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richmond County — the short answer
Richmond County, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 37K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 37K 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 7b is Richmond County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richmond County's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Richmond County
Across a year, Richmond County accumulates about 3,475 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,239 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 58 of New York’s 62 counties. 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 Richmond County
Across Richmond County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Greenbelt, Boonton, and Ipswich are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a cemented material surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–6.2, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Richmond County
The USDA soil survey maps 21% of Richmond County as well drained — but another 12% drains differently: 5% very poorly drained, 3% moderately well drained.
Greenbelt is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Boonton (15%) and Ipswich (7%).
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 Richmond County
Each reading below is measured for Richmond 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 Richmond County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Richmond County runs about pH 4.6–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 24% of Richmond County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredRichmond County runs about 254 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
The kind of country Richmond County is in
Richmond County sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Richmond County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Richmond County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 254-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 New York profile.
Is it too late to plant in Richmond County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Richmond County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Richmond County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly62 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Richmond County
USGS estimates 62 lb of Atrazine on Richmond County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight.
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 Richmond County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Richmond County — 1,095 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Richmond County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Richmond County
Closest first, across Richmond County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OCEAN VIEW CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BARRYS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KENSINGTON GARDENS APARTMENT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AMBOY SERVICE STATION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PATHWAY AUTO CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ANTHONY CRAPANZANOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DELIA BROTHERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMBOY SERVICE STATION INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- P.S. 37 (OLD I24X) S.I. R840Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NYC DEPT OF EDUCATION - PS 089RBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PUBLIC SCHOOL 53RBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- R 126. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richmond 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 Richmond County.
Total Sites
1,095
across Richmond County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Richmond County
Severity Distribution
across Richmond County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Richmond 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 Richmond County average
Your land is one point inside Richmond County
Everything above resolves to Richmond County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 37K 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 Richmond County Average
Richmond County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Richmond County
- ●One soil character for all of Richmond County
- ●Frost dates read at Richmond County's scale: Mar 22 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richmond County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Richmond County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richmond County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richmond County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richmond County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richmond County average
How we know this about Richmond 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 Richmond County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Richmond County
When does frost risk typically end in Richmond County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond County typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Richmond County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richmond County sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 17, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richmond County?
The federal record around Richmond County is a meaningful one — 1,095 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (545), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Richmond County's scale — its 7b band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richmond 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 New York's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Richmond County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Richmond County's own scale — its own ~254-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,095 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richmond County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richmond County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Richmond CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,095 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Richmond County's boundary and the 36,814 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Richmond County sitting wholly inside the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Richmond County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Richmond County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Richmond County — the ~254 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 Richmond County's 36,814 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,095 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 Richmond Countyread your own land →