Richmond, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Richmond, 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 Richmond 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 Richmond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richmond — the short answer
Richmond, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 38K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 38K 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 7b is Richmond's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richmond's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richmond
Each reading below is measured for Richmond itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichmond runs about 233 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
MeasuredRichmond sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Richmond is in
Richmond sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richmond's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richmond city.
What Grows in Richmond
Every plant below cleared Richmond's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richmond?
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 Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Richmond
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Richmond, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Richmond
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richmond. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAYMONT PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RIVERVIEW CEMETARY R&C #507Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CHARLIES MARKET (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WESTOVER MERCEDESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BYRD PARK - RECREATION & PARKS #505Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ENGINE COMPANY NO 20Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- EXXON CO U S A RA527815Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- 7 Eleven Inc 40012Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- IRELAND CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DANCE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RECREATION & PARKS #504 - FOREST HILL PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richmond'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 Richmond.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richmond
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richmond
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richmond, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,975 sites within ~10 miles of Richmond. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Richmond
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 Richmond average
Your land is one point inside Richmond
Everything above resolves to Richmond as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 38K 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 city 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 Richmond Average
Richmond Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Richmond
- ●One soil character for all of Richmond
- ●Frost dates read at Richmond's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richmond's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richmond
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richmond, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richmond averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richmond — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richmond average
How we know this about Richmond
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Richmond’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Richmond
When does frost risk typically end in Richmond?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Richmond?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richmond typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richmond?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richmond sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 30, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richmond?
The federal record around Richmond runs heavier than most — 2,930 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,975), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Richmond?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richmond's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richmond'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 Richmond’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Richmond's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 38,352 acres it covers and 2,930 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richmond's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richmond's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 13 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,930 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richmond, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richmond's boundary and the 38,352 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richmond's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Richmondlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richmond's 38,352 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richmond County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richmond 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 Richmond County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richmond's 38,352 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richmond you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 38,352 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 Richmond-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Wider growing context
What grows across VirginiaRichmond sits outside our named growing regions, so Virginia as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides