Lowry, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lowry, 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 Lowry 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 Lowry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lowry — the short answer
Lowry, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 162 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 162 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 Lowry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lowry's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lowry
Each reading below is measured for Lowry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLowry 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
MeasuredLowry 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 Lowry is in
Lowry sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lowry's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Walworth County is mostly Northwestern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lowry
Every plant below cleared Lowry'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 Lowry?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Lowry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lowry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 121N76W 7ADDD (2)Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- SINCLAIR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- 121N74W19DDDDNitrate · 8.7 mi
- 122N75W13AAAA (2)Nitrate · 9.0 mi
- SELBY, SDUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- 121N74W20DDAD (2)Nitrate · 9.6 mi
- 121N74W20DDADNitrate · 9.7 mi
- 123N76W30AADBNitrate · 9.9 mi
- CRESBARD SCHOOL DIST 24-1Underground Storage Tanks · 10.0 mi
Measured from Lowry'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 Lowry.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lowry
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 Lowry
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 Lowry average
Your land is one point inside Lowry
Everything above resolves to Lowry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 162 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 Lowry Average
Lowry Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Lowry
- ●One soil character for all of Lowry
- ●Frost dates read at Lowry's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lowry's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lowry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lowry, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lowry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lowry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lowry average
How we know this about Lowry
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 Lowry’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 Lowry
When does frost risk typically end in Lowry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lowry typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Lowry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lowry typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lowry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lowry sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 27, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lowry?
The federal record around Lowry is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.8 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 Lowry?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lowry's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lowry'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 Lowry’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lowry's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 162 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lowry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lowry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 11 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lowry, the closest Nitrate record about 3.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lowry's boundary and the 162 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lowry sits in the Northwestern Great 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 Lowry's 162 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Walworth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Walworth 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 Walworth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lowry's 162 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lowry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 162 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.8 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 Lowry-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaLowry sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.