Colonial Pine Hills, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Colonial Pine Hills — the short answer
Colonial Pine Hills, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Colonial Pine Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colonial Pine Hills's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Colonial Pine Hills
Each reading below is measured for Colonial Pine Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColonial Pine Hills runs about 156 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
MeasuredColonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine Hills is in
Colonial Pine Hills sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Colonial Pine Hills's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pennington County is mostly Northwestern Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Colonial Pine Hills
Every plant below cleared Colonial Pine Hills's own zone 5a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Colonial Pine Hills?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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 Colonial Pine Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Colonial Pine Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 001N07E31ABDCNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 001N07E31ACANitrate · 0.7 mi
- 001N07E32BDBBNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 001N07E31BBDANitrate · 0.8 mi
- 001N06E36AAABNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 001N06E36AAAB (2)Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 001N07E29DAACNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 001N07E32CANitrate · 1.0 mi
- 001N07E32CADBNitrate · 1.1 mi
- CORNER PANTRY #16 (MOON MEADOWS)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 001N07E32ADBANitrate · 1.1 mi
- 001N07E32DABANitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine Hills.
Total Sites
756
within ~10 miles of Colonial Pine Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Colonial Pine Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Colonial Pine Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Colonial Pine Hills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 290 sites within ~10 miles of Colonial Pine Hills. 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 Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine Hills average
Your land is one point inside Colonial Pine Hills
Everything above resolves to Colonial Pine Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Colonial Pine Hills Average
Colonial Pine Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Colonial Pine Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Colonial Pine Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Colonial Pine Hills's scale: May 5 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colonial Pine Hills's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Colonial Pine Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colonial Pine Hills, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colonial Pine Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colonial Pine Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colonial Pine Hills average
How we know this about Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Colonial Pine Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colonial Pine Hills typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Colonial Pine Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Colonial Pine Hills typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Colonial Pine Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colonial Pine Hills sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 24, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colonial Pine Hills?
The federal record around Colonial Pine Hills is a meaningful one — 756 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (290), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Colonial Pine Hills?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Colonial Pine Hills's scale — its 5a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colonial Pine 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 Colonial Pine Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Colonial Pine Hills's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,778 acres it covers and 756 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colonial Pine Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colonial Pine Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 8 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 756 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Colonial Pine Hills, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Colonial Pine Hills's boundary and the 9,778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Colonial Pine Hills sits in the Middle Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Colonial Pine Hills's 9,778 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pennington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pennington 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 Pennington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colonial Pine Hills's 9,778 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Colonial Pine 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 9,778 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Colonial Pine Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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