Leola, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leola, 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 Leola 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 Leola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leola — the short answer
Leola, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 475 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- 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
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 475 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 Leola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leola's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leola
Each reading below is measured for Leola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeola runs about 162 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
MeasuredLeola 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 Leola is in
Leola sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Leola's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: McPherson County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Leola
Every plant below cleared Leola's own zone 4b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leola?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (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. 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 Leola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AGTEGRAUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LEOLA SCHOOL DIST 44-2Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FORMER IMPLEMENT DEALERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 126N67W17DCDCNitrate · 900 ft
- 126N67W17CDDA3Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 126N67W17CDDANitrate · 1300 ft
- GENE'S OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SD DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MCPHERSON CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 126N67W17DAADNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 125N68W14CDCBNitrate · 6.8 mi
- 125N67W32AAAANitrate · 8.0 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leola'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 Leola.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leola
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Leola
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 Leola average
Your land is one point inside Leola
Everything above resolves to Leola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 475 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 Leola Average
Leola Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Leola
- ●One soil character for all of Leola
- ●Frost dates read at Leola's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leola's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leola, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leola average
How we know this about Leola
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 Leola’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 Leola
When does frost risk typically end in Leola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leola typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Leola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leola 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 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leola sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leola?
The federal record around Leola is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Leola?
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 Leola's scale — its 4b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leola'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 Leola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leola's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 475 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leola's boundary and the 475 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Leola 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 Leola's 475 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McPherson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McPherson 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 McPherson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leola's 475 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 475 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Leola-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaLeola sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides