Parker, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Parker, 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 Parker 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 Parker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Parker — the short answer
Parker, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 750 acres of city.
- 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 750 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 Parker's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Parker's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Parker
Each reading below is measured for Parker itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParker runs about 178 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
MeasuredParker 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 Parker is in
Parker sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Parker's own centroid rather than borrowed from Turner County.
What Grows in Parker
Every plant below cleared Parker's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Parker?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Parker
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Parker. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AL ROEDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SOIL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GET 'N' GO #9Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PRAIRIE PUMPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- RICHARDSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FARMERS UNION COOP ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TURNER CO HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- STATE OF SD DIV OF RAILROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KAPPS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LELOUX PETROLEUM SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NUTRIEN AG SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 99N53W17CBAANitrate · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Parker'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 Parker.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Parker
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Parker
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Parker
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Parker, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Parker. 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 Parker
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 Parker average
Your land is one point inside Parker
Everything above resolves to Parker as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 750 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 Parker Average
Parker Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Parker
- ●One soil character for all of Parker
- ●Frost dates read at Parker's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Parker's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Parker
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Parker, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Parker averages can't show:
We read public map data around Parker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Parker average
How we know this about Parker
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 Parker’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 Parker
When does frost risk typically end in Parker?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Parker 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 Parker?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Parker typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Parker?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Parker sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 2, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Parker?
The federal record around Parker shows 133 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Parker?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Parker's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Parker'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 Parker’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Parker's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 750 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Parker's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Parker's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 16 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Parker, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Parker's boundary and the 750 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Parker's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Parker's 750 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Turner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Turner 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 Turner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Parker's 750 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Parker you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 750 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Parker-wide figureread your own land →