Gayville, 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.
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 Gayville, 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 Gayville 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 Gayville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gayville — the short answer
Gayville, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 155 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 155 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 Gayville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gayville's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gayville
Each reading below is measured for Gayville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGayville runs about 179 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
MeasuredGayville 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 Gayville is in
Gayville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Gayville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yankton County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gayville
Every plant below cleared Gayville's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gayville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Gayville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gayville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 93N54W12BDCDNitrate · 350 ft
- WUEBBEN TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FARMERS CO-OP ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GAYVILLE-VOLIN SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GAYVILLE ALFALFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DENNIS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 93N54W12Nitrate · 1400 ft
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS COMPANY - GAYVILLE #1 TBSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MA & PA'S C-STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 93N54W 9ABNitrate · 2.6 mi
- 93N54W 4CCCCNitrate · 3.3 mi
- 94N53W20CCCANitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gayville'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 Gayville.
Total Sites
157
within ~10 miles of Gayville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gayville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gayville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gayville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gayville — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (104 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Gayville
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 Gayville average
Your land is one point inside Gayville
Everything above resolves to Gayville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 155 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 Gayville Average
Gayville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Gayville
- ●One soil character for all of Gayville
- ●Frost dates read at Gayville's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gayville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gayville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gayville, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gayville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gayville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gayville average
How we know this about Gayville
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 Gayville’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 Gayville
When does frost risk typically end in Gayville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gayville typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Gayville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gayville 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 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gayville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gayville sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 2, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gayville?
The federal record around Gayville is a meaningful one — 157 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (104), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gayville?
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 Gayville's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gayville'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 Gayville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gayville's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 155 acres it covers and 157 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gayville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gayville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 16 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 157 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gayville, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gayville's boundary and the 155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gayville 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 Gayville's 155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yankton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yankton 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 Yankton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gayville's 155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gayville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Gayville-wide figureread your own land →
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