Running Water, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Running Water, 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 Running Water 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 Running Water — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Running Water — the short answer
Running Water, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Running Water's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Running Water's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Running Water
Each reading below is measured for Running Water itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRunning Water runs about 183 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
MeasuredRunning Water 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 Running Water is in
Running Water sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Running Water's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bon Homme County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Running Water
Every plant below cleared Running Water's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Running Water?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Running Water
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Running Water. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 92N60W20BAABNitrate · 1.0 mi
- 92N61W 2DADDNitrate · 2.3 mi
- VICs SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 92N61W 5DDCDNitrate · 3.1 mi
- NIOBRARA TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CASY'S GENERAL STORE #2608Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- J & K AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- GREGs MOTOR & MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 93N61W35CDDBNitrate · 3.6 mi
- BECTON DICKINSON AND COMPANYBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- 33N 5W33DB 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 93N61W26BDACNitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Running Water'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 Running Water.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Running Water
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Running Water
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Running Water
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Running Water, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Running Water. 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 Running Water
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 Running Water average
Your land is one point inside Running Water
Everything above resolves to Running Water as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Running Water Average
Running Water Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Running Water
- ●One soil character for all of Running Water
- ●Frost dates read at Running Water's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Running Water's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Running Water
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Running Water, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Running Water averages can't show:
We read public map data around Running Water — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Running Water average
How we know this about Running Water
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 Running Water’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 Running Water
When does frost risk typically end in Running Water?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Running Water typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Running Water?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Running Water typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Running Water?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Running Water sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 5, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Running Water?
The federal record around Running Water is a meaningful one — 87 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Running Water?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Running Water's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Running Water'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 Running Water’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Running Water's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,338 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Running Water's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Running Water's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 19 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Running Water, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Running Water's boundary and the 1,338 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Running Water sits in the Northwestern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Running Water's 1,338 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bon Homme County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bon Homme 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 Bon Homme County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Running Water's 1,338 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Running Water you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,338 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Running Water-wide figureread your own land →