Angostura, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Angostura, 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 Angostura 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 Angostura — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Angostura — the short answer
Angostura, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 5a is Angostura's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Angostura's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Angostura
Each reading below is measured for Angostura itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAngostura runs about 163 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
MeasuredAngostura sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Angostura is in
Angostura sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Angostura's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fall River County.
What Grows in Angostura
Every plant below cleared Angostura's own zone 5a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Angostura?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Angostura
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Angostura. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILLS EDGE AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GRIN AND BEAR IT GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 008S06E14ADCDNitrate · 2.6 mi
- FALL RIVER FEEDLOTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SD DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 007S06E34CBDBNitrate · 5.3 mi
- 008S05E26BCAANitrate · 5.4 mi
- COFFEE CUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- BIG BAT'S LLC #4Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- HOT SPRINGSPFAS · 7.5 mi
- 007S06E23AACCNitrate · 7.8 mi
- 008S05E16BBADNitrate · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Angostura'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 Angostura.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Angostura
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Angostura
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Angostura
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Angostura, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Angostura. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Angostura
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 Angostura average
Your land is one point inside Angostura
Everything above resolves to Angostura as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Angostura Average
Angostura Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Angostura
- ●One soil character for all of Angostura
- ●Frost dates read at Angostura's scale: May 3 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Angostura's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Angostura
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Angostura, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Angostura averages can't show:
We read public map data around Angostura — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Angostura average
How we know this about Angostura
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 Angostura’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 Angostura
When does frost risk typically end in Angostura?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Angostura typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Angostura?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Angostura typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Angostura?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Angostura sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 29, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Angostura?
The federal record around Angostura is a meaningful one — 60 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Angostura?
From about Sep 13 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 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 Oct 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Angostura's scale — its 5a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Angostura'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 Angostura’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Angostura's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,055 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Angostura's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Angostura's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 13 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Angostura, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Angostura's boundary and the 8,055 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Angostura's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Angostura's 8,055 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fall River County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fall River 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 Fall River County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Angostura's 8,055 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Angostura you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,055 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Angostura-wide figureread your own land →
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