Philip, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Philip, 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 Philip 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 Philip — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Philip — the short answer
Philip, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 398 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 Philip's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Philip's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Philip
Each reading below is measured for Philip itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhilip runs about 159 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
MeasuredPhilip 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 Philip is in
Philip sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Philip's own centroid rather than borrowed from Haakon County.
What Grows in Philip
Every plant below cleared Philip's own zone 4b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Philip?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Philip
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Philip. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CORNER PANTRY # 20Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PHILIP MOTOR, INC.Brownfields · 700 ft
- RAVELLETTE PUBLICATIONS, INC.Brownfields · 800 ft
- HAAKON SCHOOL DISTRICT 27-1Brownfields · 1000 ft
- FARMERS UNION OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PHILIP PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PHILIP STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SCOTCHMAN INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- GROSSENBURG IMPLEMENT INC.Brownfields · 2100 ft
- SD DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 001N20E01ACDDNitrate · 2.4 mi
- MISSILE FIELD C-5 FLIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Philip'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 Philip.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Philip
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Philip
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Philip, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Philip. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Philip
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 Philip average
Your land is one point inside Philip
Everything above resolves to Philip as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Philip Average
Philip Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Philip
- ●One soil character for all of Philip
- ●Frost dates read at Philip's scale: May 3 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Philip's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Philip
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Philip, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Philip averages can't show:
We read public map data around Philip — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Philip average
How we know this about Philip
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 Philip’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 Philip
When does frost risk typically end in Philip?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Philip typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Philip?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Philip typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Philip?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Philip sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 25, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Philip?
The federal record around Philip shows 25 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Philip?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Philip's scale — its 4b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Philip'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 Philip’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Philip's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Philip's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Philip's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 9 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Philip, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Philip's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Philip's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Philip's 398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Haakon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Haakon 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 Haakon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Philip's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Philip you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Philip-wide figureread your own land →
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