Ree Heights, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ree Heights, 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 Ree Heights 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 Ree Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ree Heights — the short answer
Ree Heights, South Dakota: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 189 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- 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
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 189 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 Ree Heights's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ree Heights's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ree Heights
Each reading below is measured for Ree Heights itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRee Heights runs about 167 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
MeasuredRee Heights 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 Ree Heights is in
Ree Heights sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ree Heights's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hand County.
What Grows in Ree Heights
Every plant below cleared Ree Heights's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ree Heights?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (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 Ree Heights
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ree Heights. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REE HEIGHTS REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 113N69W 6DDBDNitrate · 7.4 mi
- LAKE LOUISE REC AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- 114N70W35CCCCNitrate · 8.3 mi
- 111N68W 6AAANitrate · 8.7 mi
- WILBUR-ELLIS COMPANY LLC - MILLERBrownfields · 9.9 mi
- TITAN MACHINERY - HIGHMOREBrownfields · 9.9 mi
Measured from Ree Heights'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 Ree Heights.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ree Heights
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ree Heights
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Ree Heights
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 Ree Heights average
Your land is one point inside Ree Heights
Everything above resolves to Ree Heights as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 189 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 Ree Heights Average
Ree Heights Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Ree Heights
- ●One soil character for all of Ree Heights
- ●Frost dates read at Ree Heights's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ree Heights's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ree Heights
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ree Heights, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ree Heights averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ree Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ree Heights average
How we know this about Ree Heights
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 Ree Heights’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 Ree Heights
When does frost risk typically end in Ree Heights?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ree Heights typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Ree Heights?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ree Heights 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 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ree Heights?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ree Heights sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 27, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ree Heights?
The federal record around Ree Heights is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ree Heights?
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 Ree Heights's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ree Heights'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 Ree Heights’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ree Heights's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 189 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ree Heights's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ree Heights's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 11 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ree Heights, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ree Heights's boundary and the 189 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ree Heights's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ree Heights's 189 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hand County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hand 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 Hand County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ree Heights's 189 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ree Heights you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 189 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 Ree Heights-wide figureread your own land →
More in South Dakota
Wider growing context
What grows across South DakotaRee Heights sits outside our named growing regions, so South Dakota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides