Richland Center, Wisconsin, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Richland Center, 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 Richland Center 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 Richland Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Richland Center — the short answer
Richland Center, Wisconsin: USDA zone 4b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 4b is Richland Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Richland Center's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Richland Center
Each reading below is measured for Richland Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRichland Center runs about 173 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
MeasuredRichland Center 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 Richland Center is in
Richland Center sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Richland Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Richland County.
What Grows in Richland Center
Every plant below cleared Richland Center's own zone 4b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Wisconsin profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Richland Center?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Richland Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Richland Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE RICHLAND HOSPITAL INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- The Richland Hospital IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Samuel L ScalettaUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MARATHON #2076Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ROBERT G KIELYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RIVERSIDE SUPPER CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Faber Swiss ColonyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ORLEN RICHARDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JIM BARNETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Willow Valley Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TOWN OF DAYTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Johnsons StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Richland Center'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 Richland Center.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Richland Center
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Richland Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Richland Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Richland Center, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Richland Center — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (136 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Richland Center
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 Richland Center average
Your land is one point inside Richland Center
Everything above resolves to Richland Center 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 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 Richland Center Average
Richland Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Richland Center
- ●One soil character for all of Richland Center
- ●Frost dates read at Richland Center's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Richland Center's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Richland Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Richland Center, Wisconsin — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Richland Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Richland Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Richland Center average
How we know this about Richland Center
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 Richland Center’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 Richland Center
When does frost risk typically end in Richland Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Richland Center typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Richland Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Richland Center typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Richland Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Richland Center sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 30, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Richland Center?
The federal record around Richland Center shows 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Richland Center?
From about Sep 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 Oct 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Richland Center's scale — its 4b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Richland Center'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 Richland Center’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Richland Center's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,003 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Richland Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Richland Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 14 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Richland Center, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Richland Center's boundary and the 3,003 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Richland Center's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Richland Center's 3,003 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Richland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Richland County
- The growing challenges every Wisconsin grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Wisconsin
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Richland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Richland Center's 3,003 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Richland Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,003 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Richland Center-wide figureread your own land →
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