Pearl Creek Colony, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Pearl Creek Colony, 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 Pearl Creek Colony 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 Pearl Creek Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pearl Creek Colony — the short answer
Pearl Creek Colony, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 226 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 226 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 Pearl Creek Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pearl Creek Colony's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pearl Creek Colony
Each reading below is measured for Pearl Creek Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPearl Creek Colony runs about 176 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
MeasuredPearl Creek Colony 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 Pearl Creek Colony is in
Pearl Creek Colony sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pearl Creek Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beadle County.
What Grows in Pearl Creek Colony
Every plant below cleared Pearl Creek Colony's own zone 4b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pearl Creek Colony?
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 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 14 — 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 Pearl Creek Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pearl Creek Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 110N59W16DDACNitrate · 950 ft
- 110N59W16DDBBNitrate · 950 ft
- 110N59W21ABCANitrate · 1200 ft
- 110N59W16DDAA (3)Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 110N59W21AACDNitrate · 1400 ft
- 110N59W15CCBANitrate · 1800 ft
- 110N59W16BBBBNitrate · 1.2 mi
- 110N59W17AAAANitrate · 1.3 mi
- 110N59W10DAAA (2)Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 109N59W20CCCBNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 110N59W29DDDNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 110N59W 8AAADNitrate · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pearl Creek Colony'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 Pearl Creek Colony.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Pearl Creek Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 brownfield sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pearl Creek Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pearl Creek Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pearl Creek Colony, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 140 sites within ~10 miles of Pearl Creek Colony. 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 Pearl Creek Colony
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 Pearl Creek Colony average
Your land is one point inside Pearl Creek Colony
Everything above resolves to Pearl Creek Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 226 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 Pearl Creek Colony Average
Pearl Creek Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pearl Creek Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Pearl Creek Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Pearl Creek Colony's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pearl Creek Colony's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pearl Creek Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pearl Creek Colony, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pearl Creek Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pearl Creek Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pearl Creek Colony average
How we know this about Pearl Creek Colony
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 Pearl Creek Colony’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 Pearl Creek Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Pearl Creek Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pearl Creek Colony 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 Pearl Creek Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pearl Creek Colony typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pearl Creek Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pearl Creek Colony sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 30, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pearl Creek Colony?
The federal record around Pearl Creek Colony shows 146 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (140), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Pearl Creek Colony?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pearl Creek Colony's scale — its 4b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pearl Creek Colony'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 Pearl Creek Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pearl Creek Colony's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 226 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pearl Creek Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pearl Creek Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 14 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pearl Creek Colony, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pearl Creek Colony's boundary and the 226 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pearl Creek Colony's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pearl Creek Colony's 226 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 Pearl Creek Colony's 226 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pearl Creek Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 226 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Pearl Creek Colony-wide figureread your own land →
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