Oglala Lakota County, in South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Oglala Lakota County lies within the West River — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Oglala Lakota County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Oglala Lakota County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Oglala Lakota County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oglala Lakota County — the short answer
Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 1.3M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.3M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Oglala Lakota County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oglala Lakota County's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Oglala Lakota County
Across a year, Oglala Lakota County accumulates about 2,478 growing degree days above 50°F, about 52 more than the middle South Dakota county — ahead of 36 of South Dakota’s 66 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Oglala Lakota County
Across Oglala Lakota County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Canyon, Oglala, and Keith are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.8, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Oglala Lakota County
The USDA soil survey maps 84% of Oglala Lakota County as well drained — but another 15% drains differently: 12% excessively drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Canyon is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Oglala (10%) and Keith (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Oglala Lakota County
Each reading below is measured for Oglala Lakota County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Oglala Lakota County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Oglala Lakota County runs about pH 7.0–7.8, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredOglala Lakota County runs about 159 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
MeasuredOglala Lakota County 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 Oglala Lakota County is in
Oglala Lakota County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Great Plains (67%) and High Plains (32%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Oglala Lakota County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Oglala Lakota County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 159-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile.
Is it too late to plant in Oglala Lakota County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Oglala Lakota County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Oglala Lakota County
USGS estimates 31,254 lb of Glyphosate on Oglala Lakota County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (12,995 lb) and Atrazine (12,816 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Oglala Lakota County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Oglala Lakota County — 105 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Oglala Lakota County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Oglala Lakota County
Closest first, across Oglala Lakota County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MANDERSON DAY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- US POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 40N44W 8DDCNitrate · 7.9 mi
- 38N44W25DDBNitrate · 8.4 mi
- PINE RIDGE SCHOOLBrownfields · 8.7 mi
- 40N44W12DABNitrate · 9.5 mi
- 39N43W11BDNitrate · 9.5 mi
- ROCKYFORD SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.1 mi
- COMMON CENTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.1 mi
- 39N46W29CDBNitrate · 11.6 mi
- 41N44W25DBACNitrate · 11.7 mi
- OGLALA RWS PIPELINEPFAS · 11.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oglala Lakota County'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 Oglala Lakota County.
Total Sites
105
across Oglala Lakota County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Oglala Lakota County
Severity Distribution
across Oglala Lakota County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oglala Lakota County, two things run higher than the national average across Oglala Lakota County — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (68 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Oglala Lakota County
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 Oglala Lakota County average
Your land is one point inside Oglala Lakota County
Everything above resolves to Oglala Lakota County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.3M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Oglala Lakota County Average
Oglala Lakota County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Oglala Lakota County
- ●One soil character for all of Oglala Lakota County
- ●Frost dates read at Oglala Lakota County's scale: May 4 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oglala Lakota County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Oglala Lakota County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oglala Lakota County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oglala Lakota County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oglala Lakota County average
How we know this about Oglala Lakota County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Oglala Lakota County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Oglala Lakota County
When does frost risk typically end in Oglala Lakota County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oglala Lakota County typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Oglala Lakota County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oglala Lakota County sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 26, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oglala Lakota County?
The federal record around Oglala Lakota County is a meaningful one — 105 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Oglala Lakota County's scale — its 5a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oglala Lakota County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads South Dakota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Oglala Lakota County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Oglala Lakota County's own scale — its own ~159-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 105 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oglala Lakota County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oglala Lakota County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Oglala Lakota CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 105 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 7.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Oglala Lakota County's boundary and the 1,339,904 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Oglala Lakota County spans, Northwestern Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Oglala Lakota County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Oglala Lakota County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every South Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Dakota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Oglala Lakota County — the ~159 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oglala Lakota County's 1,339,904 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 105 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Oglala Lakota Countyread your own land →