Morningside, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morningside, 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 Morningside 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 Morningside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morningside — the short answer
Morningside, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 330 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 330 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 Morningside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morningside's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morningside
Each reading below is measured for Morningside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorningside runs about 172 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
MeasuredMorningside 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 Morningside is in
Morningside sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Morningside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beadle County.
What Grows in Morningside
Every plant below cleared Morningside's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morningside?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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 Morningside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morningside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASPHALT PAVING & MATERIALS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HURON DRESSED BEEFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HUGHES OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TANK LEASING L & DUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DISTRIBUTION CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE - HURONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KIBBLE EQUIPMENT (FORMER JAMES RIVER EQUIPMENT)Brownfields · 1400 ft
- HUBBARD FEED MILLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CONSOLIDATED READY MIX, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- DJ'S TRUCK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HUBBARD FEEDS INC HURONToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- HUBBARD FEEDS INC HURONBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morningside'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 Morningside.
Total Sites
276
within ~10 miles of Morningside
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morningside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morningside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morningside, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 160 sites within ~10 miles of Morningside. 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 Morningside
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 Morningside average
Your land is one point inside Morningside
Everything above resolves to Morningside as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 330 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 Morningside Average
Morningside Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Morningside
- ●One soil character for all of Morningside
- ●Frost dates read at Morningside's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morningside's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morningside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morningside, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morningside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morningside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morningside average
How we know this about Morningside
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 Morningside’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 Morningside
When does frost risk typically end in Morningside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morningside typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Morningside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morningside 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 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morningside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morningside sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 27, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morningside?
The federal record around Morningside is a meaningful one — 276 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (160), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Morningside?
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 Morningside's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morningside'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 Morningside’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Morningside's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 330 acres it covers and 276 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morningside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morningside's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 11 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 276 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morningside, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morningside's boundary and the 330 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morningside's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morningside's 330 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beadle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beadle 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 Beadle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morningside's 330 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morningside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 330 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Morningside-wide figureread your own land →
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