One of the first steps you take when you are determining your gardening schedule is find your USDA Zone info. The zone info helps tell us things like average date of last frost and lowest expected temperature for your area.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Richmond can be estimated by referring to the USDA zone info.

Planting Calendar for Runner beans

Frost tolerance for runner beans:	Not tolerant of frost.
When to plant:	After the last frost when the weather gets warmer.

It's probably not a good idea to plant runner beans until after the last frost has passed because they do not do well in cold weather.

The earliest that you can plant runner beans in Richmond is March. However, you really should wait until April if you don't want to take any chances.

The last month that you can plant runner beans and expect a good harvest is probably September. If you wait any later than that and your runner beans may not have a chance to really do well. You can get started a few weeks earlier by starting your runner beans indoors.

Last Frost Date

The average date of last frost is February 15 in Richmond. In the coldest months of winter you can expect an average low temperature of 20°F.

Since the USDA zone info for Richmond is just an average the actual date of last frost will vary from year to year. Half of the time in Richmond it frosts late in the year after February 15 so just be sure to be ready to cover your runner beans if you have a late frost.

USDA Zone Info for Richmond

Here is the info for USDA Zone 9a.

Average Date of Last Frost (spring)	February 15
Average Date of First Frost (fall)	December 15
Lowest Expected Low	20°F
Highest Expected Low	25°F

This means that on a really cold year, the coldest it will get is 20°F. On most years you should be prepared to experience lows near 25°F.

Plants to Grow in Richmond

You may be interested in your other planting guides for Richmond.