Richards, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Richards, 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 Richards 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 Richards — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richards — the short answer
Richards, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Grimes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Richards's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richards's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richards
Each reading below is measured for Richards itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRichards runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Grimes County, the closest normal to Richards) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRichards sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Richards is in
Richards sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Richards's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grimes County is mostly East Central Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Richards
Every plant below cleared Richards's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richards?
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 Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Richards
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richards. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICHARDS HOMETOWN CAFE AND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RICHARDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KW-60-26-708Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- KW-60-26-710Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- KW-60-26-709Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- KW-60-26-401Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- KW-60-34-102Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- KW-60-25-903Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- KW-60-26-101Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- KW-60-25-802Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- CEDAR HILL RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- KW-60-25-804Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richards'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 Richards.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Richards
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
50 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richards
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richards
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richards, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Richards — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Richards
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 Richards average
Your land is one point inside Richards
Everything above resolves to Richards as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grimes County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Richards Average
Richards Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Richards
- ●One soil character for all of Richards
- ●Frost dates read at Richards's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richards's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richards
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richards, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richards averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richards — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richards average
How we know this about Richards
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 Grimes County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Richards
When does frost risk typically end in Richards?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richards typically lands around Feb 7, 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 Feb 28.
When is the first frost in Richards?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richards typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richards?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richards sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 20, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richards?
The federal record around Richards is a meaningful one — 103 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Richards?
From about Nov 4 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 Dec 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 Dec 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richards's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richards'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 Richards’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Richards's own scale — the 1,164 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richards's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richards, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richards's boundary and the 1,164 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Richards sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Richards has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grimes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richards's 1,164 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grimes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grimes County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Grimes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richards's 1,164 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richards you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,164 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Richards-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasRichards sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides