Mission Hill, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Mission Hill, 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 Mission Hill 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 Mission Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mission Hill — the short answer
Mission Hill, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 210 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 210 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 Mission Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mission Hill's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mission Hill
Each reading below is measured for Mission Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMission Hill runs about 183 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
MeasuredMission Hill 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 Mission Hill is in
Mission Hill sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Mission Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yankton County.
What Grows in Mission Hill
Every plant below cleared Mission Hill's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mission Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. 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 Mission Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mission Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 94N54W31BBCCNitrate · 200 ft
- 94N55W36ADAANitrate · 450 ft
- 94N55W36ADABNitrate · 500 ft
- SCHUBAUER TIRE AND LUBEBrownfields · 900 ft
- SOUTH DAKOTA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 900 ft
- 94N55W36DADDNitrate · 2500 ft
- 94N55W36Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 94N55W25AAAANitrate · 1.2 mi
- 93N54W 6CCDNitrate · 1.7 mi
- 93N55W12ABNitrate · 1.9 mi
- 93N55W12ANitrate · 2.1 mi
- 94N55W13CDDDNitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mission Hill'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 Mission Hill.
Total Sites
261
within ~10 miles of Mission Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mission Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mission Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mission Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mission Hill — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (104 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mission Hill
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 Mission Hill average
Your land is one point inside Mission Hill
Everything above resolves to Mission Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 210 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 Mission Hill Average
Mission Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Mission Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Mission Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Mission Hill's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mission Hill's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mission Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mission Hill, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mission Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mission Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mission Hill average
How we know this about Mission Hill
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 Mission Hill’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 Mission Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Mission Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mission Hill typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Mission Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mission Hill 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 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mission Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mission Hill sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 4, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mission Hill?
The federal record around Mission Hill is a meaningful one — 261 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (104), the nearest Nitrate 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 Mission Hill?
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 Mission Hill's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mission Hill'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 Mission Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mission Hill's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 210 acres it covers and 261 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mission Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mission Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 18 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 261 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mission Hill, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mission Hill's boundary and the 210 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mission Hill's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mission Hill's 210 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yankton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yankton 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 Yankton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mission Hill's 210 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mission Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 210 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Mission Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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