Deadwood, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Deadwood, 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 Deadwood 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 Deadwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deadwood — the short answer
Deadwood, South Dakota: USDA zone 5b, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 5b is Deadwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deadwood's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deadwood
Each reading below is measured for Deadwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeadwood runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeadwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Deadwood is in
Deadwood sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Deadwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in Deadwood
Every plant below cleared Deadwood's own zone 5b and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deadwood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Deadwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deadwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SINCLAIR RETAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- TRIPLE K TIRE AND REPAIRBrownfields · 700 ft
- BIG D OIL COMPANY #11Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SD DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CITY OF SPEARFISHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DEADWOOD AUTO SALES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LAWRENCE COUNTY COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- U.S. POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF DEADWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PATRICK EASTMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PACK HORSE LIQUORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deadwood'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 Deadwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deadwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deadwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deadwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Deadwood — Mining (65 sites) and Nitrate (90 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Deadwood
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 Deadwood average
Your land is one point inside Deadwood
Everything above resolves to Deadwood 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 city 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 Deadwood Average
Deadwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Deadwood
- ●One soil character for all of Deadwood
- ●Frost dates read at Deadwood's scale: May 11 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deadwood's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deadwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deadwood, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deadwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deadwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deadwood average
How we know this about Deadwood
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Deadwood’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Deadwood
When does frost risk typically end in Deadwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deadwood typically lands around May 11, 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 Jun 1.
When is the first frost in Deadwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deadwood typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deadwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deadwood sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 21, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deadwood?
The federal record around Deadwood runs heavier than most — 278 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Deadwood?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Deadwood rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Deadwood's scale — its 5b band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deadwood'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 Deadwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deadwood's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,155 acres it covers and 278 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deadwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deadwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 5 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 278 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deadwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deadwood's boundary and the 3,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deadwood's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deadwood's 3,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deadwood's 3,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deadwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Deadwood-wide figureread your own land →
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