Lake Andes, 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 Lake Andes, 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 Lake Andes 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 Lake Andes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Andes — the short answer
Lake Andes, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 477 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 477 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 Lake Andes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Andes's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Andes
Each reading below is measured for Lake Andes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Andes runs about 180 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
MeasuredLake Andes 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 Lake Andes is in
Lake Andes sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Andes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Charles Mix County.
What Grows in Lake Andes
Every plant below cleared Lake Andes's own zone 5a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Andes?
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 Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Lake Andes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Andes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANDES CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 400 ft
- 96N65W 4CDCANitrate · 450 ft
- 96N65W 4CDCDNitrate · 500 ft
- FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DEA - CLANDESTINE DRUG LABBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CHARLES MIX COUNTY, HWY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- L.A. OIL & GAS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PUMPER-NIKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GUS STOP IIIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 96N65W 4CCCBNitrate · 1700 ft
- VERNON'S REPAIR & AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 96N65W 5DADDNitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Andes'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 Lake Andes.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Lake Andes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Andes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Andes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Andes, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Andes. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Lake Andes
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 Lake Andes average
Your land is one point inside Lake Andes
Everything above resolves to Lake Andes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 477 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 Lake Andes Average
Lake Andes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lake Andes
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Andes
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Andes's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Andes's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Andes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Andes, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Andes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Andes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Andes average
How we know this about Lake Andes
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 Lake Andes’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 Lake Andes
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Andes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Andes typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lake Andes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Andes typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Andes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Andes sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 4, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Andes?
The federal record around Lake Andes is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (92), the nearest Brownfields 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 Lake Andes?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Andes's scale — its 5a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Andes'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 Lake Andes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Andes's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 477 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Andes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Andes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 18 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Andes, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Andes's boundary and the 477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Andes's own centroid, the Northwestern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Andes's 477 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Charles Mix County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Charles Mix 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 Charles Mix County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Andes's 477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Andes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Lake Andes-wide figureread your own land →