Richlands, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Richlands, 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 Richlands 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 Richlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Richlands — the short answer
Richlands, Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 6b is Richlands's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richlands's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richlands
Each reading below is measured for Richlands itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichlands runs about 197 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
MeasuredRichlands sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Richlands is in
Richlands sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richlands's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tazewell County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Richlands
Every plant below cleared Richlands's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richlands?
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 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 Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Richlands
Survey cells within 31 miles of Richlands checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richlands
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richlands. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fas Mart 435Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KERNS BAKERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FLAV-O-RICH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TADANO MANTIS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- M O WARNER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Corner Mart 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- REYNOLDS GULF STATION, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Fastway MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SIMMONS EQUIPMENT COToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- Kents Ridge ApartmentsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TOWN OF RICHLANDS MAINTENANCE SHOPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SYKES, JACK CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richlands'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 Richlands.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Richlands
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richlands
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richlands
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richlands, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 115 sites within ~10 miles of Richlands. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Richlands
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 Richlands average
Your land is one point inside Richlands
Everything above resolves to Richlands as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Richlands Average
Richlands Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Richlands
- ●One soil character for all of Richlands
- ●Frost dates read at Richlands's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richlands's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richlands
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richlands, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richlands averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richlands average
How we know this about Richlands
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 Richlands’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 Richlands
When does frost risk typically end in Richlands?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richlands 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 Richlands?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richlands typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richlands?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richlands sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 10, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richlands?
The federal record around Richlands shows 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), 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 Richlands?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richlands's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richlands'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 Richlands’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richlands's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,616 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richlands's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richlands's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 24 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richlands, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richlands's boundary and the 3,616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Richlands sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Richlands 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 Richlands's 3,616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tazewell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tazewell County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Tazewell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richlands's 3,616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richlands you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,616 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 Richlands-wide figureread your own land →
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