Chenega, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, potato, kale, and rhubarb. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Chenega, 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 Chenega 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 Chenega — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chenega — the short answer
Chenega, Alaska: USDA zone 8a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- Chugach Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 19K 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 Chugach Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Chenega's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chenega's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chenega
Each reading below is measured for Chenega itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChenega runs about 219 days between hard freezes (read from Chugach Census Area, the closest normal to Chenega) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChenega 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 Chenega
Plants matched to Chenega's USDA zones 8a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Chenega?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Chenega
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chenega. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wilson BayMining · 4.2 mi
- Latouche Island, Prince William Sound DistrictMining · 4.3 mi
- BeatsonMining · 4.4 mi
- Blackbird MineMining · 4.4 mi
- ChenegaMining · 4.4 mi
- Bazard TunnelMining · 4.6 mi
- Hillside LodeMining · 4.9 mi
- Latouche Beatson Copper Co.Mining · 5.0 mi
- Beatson MineMining · 5.0 mi
- Elrington IslandMining · 5.3 mi
- Northwest Exploration Ha #3-#14Mining · 5.4 mi
- Iron Mountain GroupMining · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chenega'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 Chenega.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chenega
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chenega, Mining runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Chenega. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Chenega
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 Chenega average
Your land is one point inside Chenega
Everything above resolves to Chenega as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 19K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chugach Census Area’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 Chenega Average
Chenega Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Chenega
- ●One soil character for all of Chenega
- ●Frost dates read at Chenega's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chenega's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chenega
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chenega, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chenega averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chenega — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chenega average
How we know this about Chenega
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 Chugach Census Area’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 Chenega
When does frost risk typically end in Chenega?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chenega typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Chenega?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chenega typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chenega?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chenega sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 25, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chenega?
The federal record around Chenega is a meaningful one — 32 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (32), the nearest Mining record about 4.2 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 Chenega?
From about Oct 9 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chenega's scale — its 8a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chenega'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 Chenega’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Chenega's own scale — the 18,742 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chenega's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chenega, the closest Mining record about 4.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chenega's boundary and the 18,742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chenega has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chugach Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chenega's 18,742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chugach County
- The candidate plant list — Alaska's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Alaska
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chugach 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 Chugach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chenega's 18,742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chenega you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,742 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 4.2 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 Chenega-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaChenega sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides