North Spearfish, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in North Spearfish, 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 North Spearfish 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 North Spearfish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Spearfish — the short answer
North Spearfish, South Dakota: USDA zone 5b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- 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
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is North Spearfish's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Spearfish's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Spearfish
Each reading below is measured for North Spearfish itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Spearfish runs about 164 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
MeasuredNorth Spearfish sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 North Spearfish is in
North Spearfish sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at North Spearfish's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in North Spearfish
Every plant below cleared North Spearfish's own zone 5b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Spearfish?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near North Spearfish
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Spearfish. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 006N02E05BBBB(LA86A)Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 006N02E05BBBB2(LA86B)Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 006N02E08ACCCNitrate · 1.0 mi
- EXIT 8 PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 006N02E04BBAANitrate · 1.0 mi
- CENEX CARDTROL UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 007N02E04BDNitrate · 1.1 mi
- BLACK HILLS MACHINE AND MANUFACTURING LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- DEA - CLANDESTINE DRUG LABBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 006N02E04ABNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 007N02E32BACNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 007N02E31AANitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Spearfish'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 North Spearfish.
Total Sites
288
within ~10 miles of North Spearfish
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Spearfish
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Spearfish
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Spearfish, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 204 sites within ~10 miles of North Spearfish. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 North Spearfish
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 North Spearfish average
Your land is one point inside North Spearfish
Everything above resolves to North Spearfish 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 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 North Spearfish Average
North Spearfish Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across North Spearfish
- ●One soil character for all of North Spearfish
- ●Frost dates read at North Spearfish's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Spearfish's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Spearfish
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Spearfish, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Spearfish averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Spearfish — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Spearfish average
How we know this about North Spearfish
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 North Spearfish’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 North Spearfish
When does frost risk typically end in North Spearfish?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Spearfish typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in North Spearfish?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Spearfish 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 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Spearfish?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Spearfish sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 27, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Spearfish?
The federal record around North Spearfish is a meaningful one — 288 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (204), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 North Spearfish?
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 North Spearfish's scale — its 5b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Spearfish'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 North Spearfish’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Spearfish's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,736 acres it covers and 288 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Spearfish's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Spearfish's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 11 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 288 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Spearfish, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Spearfish's boundary and the 2,736 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Spearfish's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Spearfish's 2,736 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Spearfish's 2,736 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Spearfish you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,736 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 North Spearfish-wide figureread your own land →
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