Rapid City, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Rapid City, 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 Rapid City 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 Rapid City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rapid City — the short answer
Rapid City, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6a is Rapid City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rapid City's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rapid City
Each reading below is measured for Rapid City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRapid City runs about 176 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
MeasuredRapid City sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Rapid City is in
Rapid City sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rapid City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kalkaska County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rapid City
Every plant below cleared Rapid City's own zone 6a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rapid City?
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 Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Rapid City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rapid City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Clearwater Twp Fire DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Rapid City EZ MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Rapid City GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MICHAEL D MILLERBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- YOUNG & PRINCE ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Y & P IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GREAT LAKES HOT SHOTSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Austin G. SteckerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Al MarriottUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Luhrs Landing MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ALDAN CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Fabiano's On The RiverUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rapid City'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 Rapid City.
Total Sites
248
within ~10 miles of Rapid City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rapid City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rapid City
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Rapid City
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 Rapid City average
Your land is one point inside Rapid City
Everything above resolves to Rapid City 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 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 Rapid City Average
Rapid City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rapid City
- ●One soil character for all of Rapid City
- ●Frost dates read at Rapid City's scale: May 4 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rapid City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rapid City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rapid City, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rapid City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rapid City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rapid City average
How we know this about Rapid City
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 Rapid City’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 Rapid City
When does frost risk typically end in Rapid City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rapid City typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Rapid City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rapid City typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rapid City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rapid City sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 13, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rapid City?
The federal record around Rapid City is a meaningful one — 248 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rapid City?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rapid City's scale — its 6a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rapid City'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 Rapid City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rapid City's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,461 acres it covers and 248 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rapid City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rapid City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 27 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 248 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rapid City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rapid City's boundary and the 3,461 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rapid City sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rapid City's 3,461 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kalkaska County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kalkaska County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Kalkaska County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rapid City's 3,461 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rapid City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,461 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rapid City-wide figureread your own land →