Richwood, Ohio, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Richwood, 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 Richwood 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 Richwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richwood — the short answer
Richwood, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 795 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 795 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 Richwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richwood's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richwood
Each reading below is measured for Richwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichwood runs about 208 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
MeasuredRichwood 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 Richwood is in
Richwood sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Richwood
Every plant below cleared Richwood's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richwood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Richwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Richwood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CERTIFIED OIL STATION 140Brownfields · 400 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #140Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- RICHWOOD MINI MART (MARATHON)Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DOMINY'S PIZZA & DRIVE THRUUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GILLIAND AUTO BODY SHOP LLPBrownfields · 850 ft
- U-65 LANDMARK AT RICHWOOD OHNitrate · 1700 ft
- UNION COUNTY ENGINEER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HERITAGE COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7177Brownfields · 1700 ft
- U-52 OLSON AT RICHWOOD OHNitrate · 2000 ft
- U-69 CITY WELL #3 AT RICHWOOD OHNitrate · 2000 ft
- U-68 CITY WELL 2 AT RICHWOOD OHNitrate · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richwood'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 Richwood.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Richwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richwood, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Richwood. 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 Richwood
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 Richwood average
Your land is one point inside Richwood
Everything above resolves to Richwood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 795 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 Richwood Average
Richwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Richwood
- ●One soil character for all of Richwood
- ●Frost dates read at Richwood's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richwood's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richwood, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richwood average
How we know this about Richwood
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 Richwood’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 Richwood
When does frost risk typically end in Richwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richwood typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Richwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richwood typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richwood sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 21, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richwood?
The federal record around Richwood is a meaningful one — 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Brownfields 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 Richwood?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richwood's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richwood'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 Richwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richwood's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 795 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 4 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richwood, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richwood's boundary and the 795 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richwood's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Richwood checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richwood's 795 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richwood's 795 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 795 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Richwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioRichwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides