Richboro, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Richboro, 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 Richboro 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 Richboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richboro — the short answer
Richboro, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7a is Richboro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richboro's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richboro
Each reading below is measured for Richboro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichboro runs about 229 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
MeasuredRichboro sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Richboro is in
Richboro sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richboro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bucks County.
What Grows in Richboro
Every plant below cleared Richboro's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richboro?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Richboro
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Richboro, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richboro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richboro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLLEX COLLISION EXPERTS/RICHBOROBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BK 725Nitrate · 1800 ft
- BK 724Nitrate · 2600 ft
- NORTHAMPTON VALLEY CCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SOUTHAMPTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RICHBORO AUTO & GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PAYLESS CLNRBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #0813Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- UPPER HOLLAND MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NORTHAMPTON TWP BUCK CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ATLANTIC 0363 4441Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EXXON RAS NO 23051Brownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richboro'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 Richboro.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richboro
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richboro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richboro, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Richboro. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Richboro
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 Richboro average
Your land is one point inside Richboro
Everything above resolves to Richboro as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Richboro Average
Richboro Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Richboro
- ●One soil character for all of Richboro
- ●Frost dates read at Richboro's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richboro's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richboro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richboro, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richboro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richboro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richboro average
How we know this about Richboro
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 Richboro’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 Richboro
When does frost risk typically end in Richboro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richboro typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Richboro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richboro typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richboro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richboro sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 29, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richboro?
The federal record around Richboro runs heavier than most — 2,378 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,042), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Richboro?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richboro's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richboro'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 Richboro’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richboro's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,803 acres it covers and 2,378 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richboro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richboro's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 12 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richboro, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richboro's boundary and the 2,803 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richboro's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Richborolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richboro's 2,803 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bucks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bucks County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bucks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richboro's 2,803 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richboro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,803 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Richboro-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaRichboro sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides