Flandreau, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Flandreau, 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 Flandreau 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 Flandreau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Flandreau — the short answer
Flandreau, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 4b is Flandreau's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Flandreau's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Flandreau
Each reading below is measured for Flandreau itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFlandreau runs about 167 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
MeasuredFlandreau 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 Flandreau is in
Flandreau sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Flandreau's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Moody County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Flandreau
Every plant below cleared Flandreau's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Flandreau?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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 Flandreau
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Flandreau. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLANDREAU FARM STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SPAFFORD GRADE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DAKOTA STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PRAIRIE GOLD DAIRYCAFO · 1800 ft
- DAKOTA LAYERSCAFO · 1800 ft
- BRITANNIA DAIRYCAFO · 1800 ft
- NISSEN OIL COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FLANDREAU PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- FARMERS UNION OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SOLOMON CORPORATION - FLANDREAUToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- JR LOISEAU CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- OLD TRIBAL MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Flandreau'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 Flandreau.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Flandreau
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Flandreau
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Flandreau
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Flandreau, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Flandreau — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Flandreau
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 Flandreau average
Your land is one point inside Flandreau
Everything above resolves to Flandreau 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 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 Flandreau Average
Flandreau Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Flandreau
- ●One soil character for all of Flandreau
- ●Frost dates read at Flandreau's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Flandreau's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Flandreau
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Flandreau, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Flandreau averages can't show:
We read public map data around Flandreau — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Flandreau average
How we know this about Flandreau
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 Flandreau’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 Flandreau
When does frost risk typically end in Flandreau?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Flandreau typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Flandreau?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Flandreau 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 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Flandreau?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Flandreau sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 25, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Flandreau?
The federal record around Flandreau shows 93 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Flandreau?
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 Flandreau's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Flandreau'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 Flandreau’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Flandreau's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,190 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Flandreau's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Flandreau's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 9 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Flandreau, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Flandreau's boundary and the 1,190 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Flandreau sits in the Western Corn Belt 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 Flandreau's 1,190 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Moody County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Moody 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 Moody County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Flandreau's 1,190 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Flandreau you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,190 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Flandreau-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaFlandreau sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides