Agency Village, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Agency Village, 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 Agency Village 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 Agency Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Agency Village — the short answer
Agency Village, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Agency Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Agency Village's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Agency Village
Each reading below is measured for Agency Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAgency Village runs about 167 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
MeasuredAgency Village 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 Agency Village is in
Agency Village sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Agency Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Roberts County.
What Grows in Agency Village
Every plant below cleared Agency Village's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Agency Village?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Agency Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Agency Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 125N51W29BD RNitrate · 600 ft
- 125N51W28CBBB RNitrate · 0.6 mi
- AGENCY C-STOREBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- AGENCY C-STORESuperfund · 0.9 mi
- FUEL, INC. / AGENCY VILLAGE C-STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 125N51W32CCCC RNitrate · 1.6 mi
- 125N51W18DBCC RNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 125N52W13DDDB RNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 124N51W 5CDDA3 RNitrate · 2.4 mi
- 125N51W26CCCC RNitrate · 2.6 mi
- 124N51W 4CDDD RNitrate · 2.7 mi
- 125N51W32ACCD RNitrate · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Agency Village'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 Agency Village.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Agency Village
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Agency Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Agency Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Agency Village, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 156 sites within ~10 miles of Agency Village. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Agency Village
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 Agency Village average
Your land is one point inside Agency Village
Everything above resolves to Agency Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Agency Village Average
Agency Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Agency Village
- ●One soil character for all of Agency Village
- ●Frost dates read at Agency Village's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Agency Village's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Agency Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Agency Village, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Agency Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Agency Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Agency Village average
How we know this about Agency Village
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 Agency Village’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 Agency Village
When does frost risk typically end in Agency Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Agency Village typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Agency Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Agency Village typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Agency Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Agency Village sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 27, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Agency Village?
The federal record around Agency Village is a meaningful one — 188 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (156), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Agency Village?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Agency Village's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Agency Village'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 Agency Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Agency Village's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,577 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Agency Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Agency Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 11 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Agency Village, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Agency Village's boundary and the 4,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Agency Village's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Agency Village's 4,577 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Roberts County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Roberts County
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Roberts County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Agency Village's 4,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Agency Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,577 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Agency Village-wide figureread your own land →