Spring Creek, South Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Spring Creek, 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 Spring Creek 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 Spring Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Creek — the short answer
Spring Creek, South Dakota: USDA zone 5a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Spring Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Creek's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Creek
Each reading below is measured for Spring Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpring Creek runs about 163 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
MeasuredSpring Creek 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 Spring Creek is in
Spring Creek sits in the Northwestern Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Spring Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Todd County.
What Grows in Spring Creek
Every plant below cleared Spring Creek's own zone 5a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Spring Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALANDRA'S IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CATO VALANDRAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 36N32W 1DCDCNitrate · 1300 ft
- 36N32W 2CDBDNitrate · 1.3 mi
- 36N32W25DDDDNitrate · 3.7 mi
- ST. FRANCISPFAS · 3.8 mi
- 35N32W 3DABNitrate · 5.7 mi
- 36N31W34DBBCNitrate · 5.9 mi
- 36N31W12DCCDNitrate · 5.9 mi
- 37N30W32BCBCNitrate · 6.5 mi
- 36N31W24AACDNitrate · 6.5 mi
- SPRING CREEK SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Creek'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 Spring Creek.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Spring Creek
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
38 nitrate monitoring sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Creek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Spring Creek
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 Spring Creek average
Your land is one point inside Spring Creek
Everything above resolves to Spring Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Spring Creek Average
Spring Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Spring Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Creek's scale: May 2 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Creek's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Creek, South Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Creek average
How we know this about Spring Creek
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 Spring Creek’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 Spring Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Creek typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Spring Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Creek typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Creek sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 28, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Creek?
The federal record around Spring Creek is light — 44 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (38), 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 Spring Creek?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Creek's scale — its 5a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Creek'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 Spring Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Creek's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,637 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spring Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 12 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Creek's boundary and the 6,637 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Creek's own centroid, the Northwestern Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Creek's 6,637 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Todd County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Todd 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 Todd County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Creek's 6,637 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,637 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 Spring Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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