Atka, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Atka, 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 Atka 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 Atka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Atka — the short answer
Atka, Alaska: USDA zone 8a, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Apr 16 - May 15
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Sep 24 - Oct 29
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 8a is Atka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atka
Each reading below is measured for Atka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAtka sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Atka
Every plant below cleared Atka's own zone 8a. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Atka
We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.
Your land is one point inside Atka
Everything above resolves to Atka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Atka Average
Atka Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Atka
- ●One soil character for all of Atka
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atka's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atka, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atka average
How we know this about Atka
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Atka
When does frost risk typically end in Atka?
Atka has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows Alaska's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Apr 16 - May 15 and their first fall hard freeze around Sep 24 - Oct 29, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atka?
No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around Atka. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Atka?
As the season closes around Alaska's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Sep 24 - Oct 29 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Atka's scale — its 8a band and its zone 8a. Your yard writes its own version of Atka'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 Atka’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Atka's own scale — the 5,420 acres it covers; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Atka's boundary and the 5,420 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Atka's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom Alaska
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atka's 5,420 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aleutians West County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aleutians West 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 Aleutians West County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atka's 5,420 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,420 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly →
- 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 Atka-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaAtka sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides