Deerfield Colony, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, 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 Deerfield Colony, 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 Deerfield Colony 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 Deerfield Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deerfield Colony — the short answer
Deerfield Colony, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 303 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 4b is Deerfield Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deerfield Colony's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deerfield Colony
Each reading below is measured for Deerfield Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeerfield Colony runs about 163 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
MeasuredDeerfield Colony sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Deerfield Colony is in
Deerfield Colony sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Deerfield Colony's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Edmunds County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Deerfield Colony
Every plant below cleared Deerfield Colony's own zone 4b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deerfield Colony?
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 Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Deerfield Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deerfield Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 125N67W32AAAANitrate · 1.9 mi
- 125N68W26CBADNitrate · 5.6 mi
- 124N68W26ABANitrate · 5.9 mi
- 125N68W14CDCBNitrate · 6.3 mi
- NORTHERN BORDER PIPELINE COMP STN 9Brownfields · 6.7 mi
- 125N66W22DADCNitrate · 6.8 mi
- 125N66W23ABAANitrate · 7.9 mi
- 124N66W24BABNitrate · 8.3 mi
- LEOLA SCHOOL DIST 44-2Underground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- AGTEGRAUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.5 mi
- FORMER IMPLEMENT DEALERUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.5 mi
- 126N67W17DCDCNitrate · 9.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deerfield Colony'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 Deerfield Colony.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deerfield Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deerfield Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deerfield Colony, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Deerfield Colony. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Deerfield Colony
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 Deerfield Colony average
Your land is one point inside Deerfield Colony
Everything above resolves to Deerfield Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Deerfield Colony Average
Deerfield Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Deerfield Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Deerfield Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Deerfield Colony's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deerfield Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deerfield Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deerfield Colony, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deerfield Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deerfield Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deerfield Colony average
How we know this about Deerfield Colony
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 Deerfield Colony’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 Deerfield Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Deerfield Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deerfield Colony typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Deerfield Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deerfield Colony typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deerfield Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deerfield Colony sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 25, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deerfield Colony?
The federal record around Deerfield Colony is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Deerfield Colony?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deerfield Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deerfield Colony'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 Deerfield Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Deerfield Colony's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deerfield Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deerfield Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 9 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deerfield Colony, the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deerfield Colony's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Deerfield Colony sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deerfield Colony's 303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edmunds County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edmunds 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 Edmunds County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deerfield Colony's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deerfield Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Deerfield Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaDeerfield Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides