Lyons, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lyons, 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 Lyons 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 Lyons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lyons — the short answer
Lyons, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 322 acres of town.
- 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 322 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 Lyons's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lyons's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lyons
Each reading below is measured for Lyons itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLyons runs about 177 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
MeasuredLyons 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 Lyons is in
Lyons sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lyons's own centroid rather than borrowed from Minnehaha County.
What Grows in Lyons
Every plant below cleared Lyons's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lyons?
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 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 15 — 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 Lyons
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lyons. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROSENBAUER SOUTH DAKOTA, LLC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- ROSENBAUER SOUTH DAKOTA, LLC.Brownfields · 1300 ft
- ROSENBAUER SOUTH DAKOTA, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- 103N50W18AAAANitrate · 0.5 mi
- TRI-VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 103N50W19BCCCNitrate · 1.5 mi
- BRIGHTMARK ATHENA RNG, LLC - BOADWINE FARMBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- TRI-STATE IMPLEMENT INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 104N50W31DCCDNitrate · 2.6 mi
- CITY OF SIOUX FALLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- JIMS CONOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DEA - CLANDESTINE DRUG LABBrownfields · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lyons'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 Lyons.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lyons
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lyons, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 110 sites within ~10 miles of Lyons. 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 Lyons
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 Lyons average
Your land is one point inside Lyons
Everything above resolves to Lyons as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 322 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 Lyons Average
Lyons Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lyons
- ●One soil character for all of Lyons
- ●Frost dates read at Lyons's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lyons's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lyons
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lyons, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lyons averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lyons — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lyons average
How we know this about Lyons
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 Lyons’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 Lyons
When does frost risk typically end in Lyons?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lyons 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 Lyons?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lyons 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 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lyons?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lyons sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 1, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lyons?
The federal record around Lyons shows 192 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (110), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Lyons?
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 Lyons's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lyons'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 Lyons’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lyons's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 322 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lyons's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lyons's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 15 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lyons, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lyons's boundary and the 322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lyons's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lyons's 322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Minnehaha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Minnehaha 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 Minnehaha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lyons's 322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lyons you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Lyons-wide figureread your own land →