Corn Creek, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Corn Creek, 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 Corn Creek 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 Corn Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Corn Creek — the short answer
Corn Creek, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Corn Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Corn Creek's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Corn Creek
Each reading below is measured for Corn Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCorn Creek runs about 172 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
MeasuredCorn Creek 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 Corn Creek is in
Corn Creek sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Corn Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mellette County.
What Grows in Corn Creek
Every plant below cleared Corn Creek's own zone 5a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Corn Creek?
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 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 16 — 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 Corn Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Corn Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPI SPIZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 41N33W 2DABNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 41N33W11ABDD2Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 40N33W 2AABNitrate · 7.1 mi
- STANDARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- 40N33W 3ACADNitrate · 7.2 mi
- 40N33W 3DDDC2Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- MELLETTE COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- 40N33W 8BDD2Nitrate · 8.4 mi
- 40N33W 9DDDA2Nitrate · 8.8 mi
- 40N32W17BBBBNitrate · 9.5 mi
- 40N32W17ABBNitrate · 9.8 mi
Measured from Corn Creek'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 Corn Creek.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Corn Creek
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 Corn Creek
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 Corn Creek average
Your land is one point inside Corn Creek
Everything above resolves to Corn Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Corn Creek Average
Corn Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Corn Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Corn Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Corn Creek's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Corn Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Corn Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Corn Creek, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Corn Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Corn Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Corn Creek average
How we know this about Corn Creek
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 Corn Creek’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 Corn Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Corn Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Corn Creek 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 Corn Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Corn Creek typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Corn Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Corn Creek sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 2, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Corn Creek?
The federal record around Corn Creek is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Corn Creek?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Corn Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Corn Creek'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 Corn Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Corn Creek's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,299 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Corn Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Corn Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 16 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Corn Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Corn Creek's boundary and the 1,299 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Corn Creek's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Corn Creek's 1,299 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mellette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mellette 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 Mellette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Corn Creek's 1,299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Corn Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,299 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Corn Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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