Anchorage municipality, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Anchorage municipality, 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 Anchorage municipality 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 Anchorage municipality — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anchorage municipality — the short answer
Anchorage municipality, Alaska: USDA zone 5a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 1.1M acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- Anchorage Municipality normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- Anchorage Municipality normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- Anchorage Municipality normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1.1M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Anchorage Municipality’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5a is Anchorage municipality's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anchorage municipality's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anchorage municipality
Each reading below is measured for Anchorage municipality itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAnchorage municipality runs about 145 days between hard freezes (read from Anchorage Municipality, the closest normal to Anchorage municipality) — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAnchorage municipality 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
What Grows in Anchorage municipality
Every plant below cleared Anchorage municipality's own zone 5a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anchorage municipality?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Anchorage municipality
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anchorage municipality. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOA MUNICIPALITY OF ANCHORAGEPFAS · 25 ft
- SA01400132DDDB1 023 DHHS PRUDHOE BAYNitrate · 5.5 mi
- SA01400132DCDB2 001Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- Peters CreekMining · 5.6 mi
- Eagle RiverMining · 6.9 mi
- SB01300104DDCD1 004 DHHS SOUTH RIVER DRNitrate · 7.2 mi
- Jessie B.Mining · 7.3 mi
- SB01300104ACBB1 003 DHHS SUN VALLEY DRNitrate · 7.9 mi
- SB01400133CCDA1 007 DHHS MICHAEL DRNitrate · 8.4 mi
- AT&T - Eagle River Earth StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- Hamann Construction, CO., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- MOA - Fire Station #11Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anchorage municipality'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 Anchorage municipality.
Total Sites
24
within ~10 miles of Anchorage municipality
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anchorage municipality
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anchorage municipality
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Anchorage municipality
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 Anchorage municipality average
Your land is one point inside Anchorage municipality
Everything above resolves to Anchorage municipality as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1.1M acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Anchorage Municipality’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Anchorage municipality Average
Anchorage municipality Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Anchorage municipality
- ●One soil character for all of Anchorage municipality
- ●Frost dates read at Anchorage municipality's scale: May 4 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anchorage municipality's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anchorage municipality
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anchorage municipality, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anchorage municipality averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anchorage municipality — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anchorage municipality average
How we know this about Anchorage municipality
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 Anchorage Municipality’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Anchorage municipality
When does frost risk typically end in Anchorage municipality?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anchorage municipality typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Anchorage municipality?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anchorage municipality typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anchorage municipality?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anchorage municipality sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 12, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anchorage municipality?
The federal record around Anchorage municipality shows 24 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest PFAS 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 gardeners stretch the season in Anchorage municipality?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Anchorage municipality rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Anchorage municipality's scale — its 5a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anchorage municipality'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 Anchorage municipality’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Anchorage municipality's own scale — the 1,092,524 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anchorage municipality's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anchorage municipality, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anchorage municipality's boundary and the 1,092,524 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Anchorage municipality has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Anchorage Municipality
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anchorage municipality's 1,092,524 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anchorage County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anchorage County
- The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Anchorage County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anchorage municipality's 1,092,524 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anchorage municipality you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,092,524 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Anchorage municipality-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaAnchorage municipality sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides