Richford, Vermont, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Richford, 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 Richford 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 Richford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richford — the short answer
Richford, Vermont: USDA zone 4b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 678 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 678 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 4b is Richford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richford's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richford
Each reading below is measured for Richford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichford runs about 171 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRichford sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Richford is in
Richford sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Richford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Richford
Every plant below cleared Richford's own zone 4b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Vermont profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Richford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Richford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 90 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Richford Sunoco #262Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- W A SANDRI INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Village of RichfordUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- RICHFORD HEALTH CENTER INC. DBA NOTCH PHARMACYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- RICHFORD DENTAL CLINICBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Main Street Mill/Sweat CummingsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 115 Troy StreetUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #12112Brownfields · 2000 ft
- South Main Quick Stop GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CITIZENS UTILITIES RICHFORDBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VEC - RICHFORDBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Jolley RichfordUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richford'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 Richford.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Richford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Richford
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 Richford average
Your land is one point inside Richford
Everything above resolves to Richford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 678 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 Richford Average
Richford Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Richford
- ●One soil character for all of Richford
- ●Frost dates read at Richford's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richford's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richford, Vermont — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richford average
How we know this about Richford
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 Richford’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 Richford
When does frost risk typically end in Richford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richford typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Richford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richford typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richford sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 3, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richford?
The federal record around Richford shows 92 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Richford?
From about Sep 17 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 Oct 17 (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 Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richford's scale — its 4b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richford'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 Richford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richford's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 678 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 17 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richford's boundary and the 678 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richford's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Richford 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 Richford's 678 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin County
- The growing challenges every Vermont grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Vermont
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richford's 678 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 678 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Richford-wide figureread your own land →
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