Madison, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Madison, 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 Madison 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 Madison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Madison — the short answer
Madison, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Madison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madison's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madison
Each reading below is measured for Madison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadison runs about 169 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
MeasuredMadison 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 Madison is in
Madison sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Madison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Madison
Every plant below cleared Madison's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madison?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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 Madison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAN CRIPPENUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CAMPBELL SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SCOOBYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LAKE COUNTY PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- OLSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SIEDSEHLAW IMPL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GOLDIE KELLOGGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- J & L ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EAST RIVER ELECTRIC POWER COOP, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EAST RIVER ELEC POWER COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MIDWAY GAS & OIL SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROSEBUD MFG CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madison'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 Madison.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Madison
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madison, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Madison — Nitrate (44 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Madison
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 Madison average
Your land is one point inside Madison
Everything above resolves to Madison as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Madison Average
Madison Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Madison
- ●One soil character for all of Madison
- ●Frost dates read at Madison's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madison's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madison, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madison average
How we know this about Madison
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 Madison’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 Madison
When does frost risk typically end in Madison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madison typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Madison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madison 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 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madison sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 25, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madison?
The federal record around Madison is a meaningful one — 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Madison?
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 Madison's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madison'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 Madison’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Madison's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,954 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 9 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madison's boundary and the 2,954 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Madison's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Madison's 2,954 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madison's 2,954 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,954 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Madison-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaMadison sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides