Golden View Colony, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Golden View 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 Golden View 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 Golden View Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Golden View Colony — the short answer
Golden View Colony, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 617 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 617 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 Golden View Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Golden View Colony's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Golden View Colony
Each reading below is measured for Golden View Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGolden View Colony runs about 178 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
MeasuredGolden View Colony 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 Golden View Colony is in
Golden View Colony sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Golden View Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from McCook County.
What Grows in Golden View Colony
Every plant below cleared Golden View Colony's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Golden View Colony?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Golden View Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Golden View Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ART'S WAY MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- ALL STATES AG PARTS (DBA SALEM TRACTOR PARTS)Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- SALEM TRACTOR PARTS STORAGE BUILDING AND YARDBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- T & C PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- BII SALEMToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
- LACEY'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- T & C'S PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MCCOOK CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- SD DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CENTRAL FARMERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MCCOOK ELEC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SALEM BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Golden View 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 Golden View Colony.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Golden View Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Golden View Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Golden View Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Golden View Colony, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Golden View Colony. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Golden View 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 Golden View Colony average
Your land is one point inside Golden View Colony
Everything above resolves to Golden View Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 617 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 Golden View Colony Average
Golden View Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Golden View Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Golden View Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Golden View Colony's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Golden View Colony's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Golden View Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Golden View Colony, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Golden View Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Golden View Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Golden View Colony average
How we know this about Golden View 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 Golden View 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 Golden View Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Golden View Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Golden View Colony 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 Golden View Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Golden View Colony typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Golden View Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Golden View Colony sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 1, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Golden View Colony?
The federal record around Golden View Colony shows 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Brownfields record about 3.0 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 Golden View Colony?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Golden View Colony's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Golden View 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 Golden View Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Golden View Colony's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 617 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Golden View Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Golden View Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 15 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Golden View Colony, the closest Brownfields record about 3.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Golden View Colony's boundary and the 617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Golden View Colony's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Golden View Colony's 617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McCook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McCook 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 McCook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Golden View Colony's 617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Golden View 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 617 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 3.0 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 Golden View Colony-wide figureread your own land →