Bijou Hills, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bijou Hills, 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 Bijou Hills 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 Bijou Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bijou Hills — the short answer
Bijou Hills, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~174
- 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 5a is Bijou Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bijou Hills's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bijou Hills
Each reading below is measured for Bijou Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBijou Hills runs about 174 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
MeasuredBijou Hills 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 Bijou Hills is in
Bijou Hills sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bijou Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brule County.
What Grows in Bijou Hills
Every plant below cleared Bijou Hills's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bijou Hills?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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. 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 Bijou Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bijou Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 100N71W13ADADNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 101N69W24DADANitrate · 4.7 mi
- 100N70W25BBCNitrate · 5.9 mi
- 101N70W 7CBBBNitrate · 6.3 mi
- 100N69W19AAANitrate · 6.4 mi
- SNAKE CREEK REC AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- 99N69W18BBBDNitrate · 9.8 mi
Measured from Bijou Hills'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 Bijou Hills.
Total Sites
13
within ~10 miles of Bijou Hills
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
12 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bijou Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Bijou Hills
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 Bijou Hills average
Your land is one point inside Bijou Hills
Everything above resolves to Bijou Hills 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 Bijou Hills Average
Bijou Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Bijou Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Bijou Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Bijou Hills's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bijou Hills's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bijou Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bijou Hills, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bijou Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bijou Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bijou Hills average
How we know this about Bijou Hills
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 Bijou Hills’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 Bijou Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Bijou Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bijou Hills typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Bijou Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bijou Hills 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 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bijou Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bijou Hills sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 30, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bijou Hills?
The federal record around Bijou Hills is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bijou Hills?
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 Bijou Hills's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bijou Hills'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 Bijou Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bijou Hills's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,361 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bijou Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bijou Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 14 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bijou Hills, the closest Nitrate record about 3.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bijou Hills's boundary and the 3,361 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bijou Hills's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bijou Hills's 3,361 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brule County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brule 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 Brule County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bijou Hills's 3,361 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bijou Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,361 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.7 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 Bijou Hills-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaBijou Hills sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides