Anchorage Municipality, in Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zones 3a-4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Anchorage Municipality holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Anchorage Municipality, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Anchorage Municipality — the short answer
Anchorage Municipality, Alaska: USDA zones 3a-4b, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 1.1M acres.
- USDA zones
- 3a-4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- EAGLE RIVER 5 SE station, 498 ft — 16 km away, 28 yr record
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- EAGLE RIVER 5 SE station, 498 ft — 16 km away, 28 yr record
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- EAGLE RIVER 5 SE station, 498 ft — 16 km away, 28 yr record
- County area
- 1.1M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 3a-4b 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 in Anchorage County
Across Anchorage County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Deception, Talkeetna, and Kichatna are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
17%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Anchorage Municipality
The USDA soil survey maps 56% of Anchorage Municipality as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 9% very poorly drained, 2% poorly drained.
Deception is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Talkeetna (7%) and Kichatna (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
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.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Anchorage Municipality are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Anchorage Municipality runs about pH 5.0–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 17% of Anchorage Municipality is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAnchorage Municipality runs about 145 days between hard freezes — 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
What Grows in Anchorage Municipality
We scored all 1,086 plants against Anchorage Municipality's own USDA zone 3a-4b and its own 145-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile.
Is it too late to plant in Anchorage Municipality?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Anchorage County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Anchorage County — 4,972 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 52 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Anchorage Municipality carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Anchorage Municipality
Closest first, across Anchorage County. 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
- Hamann Construction, CO., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- Vacant Lot (old 7-11 Used To Be)Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- MOA - Fire Station #11Underground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
6 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.
Sources Checked
across Anchorage County
Severity Distribution
across Anchorage County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Anchorage Municipality, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 3,498 sites across Anchorage County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 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 and one county frost record, read across 1.1M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Anchorage Municipality Average
Anchorage Municipality Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a-4b, 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 3a-4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your 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 county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Anchorage Municipality carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
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.
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 runs heavier than most — 4,972 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (3,498), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
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 3a-4b 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.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Alaska's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Anchorage Municipality’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Anchorage Municipality's own scale — its own ~145-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 4,972 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anchorage Municipality's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3a-4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anchorage Municipality's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Anchorage MunicipalityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 4,972 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Anchorage Municipality's boundary and the 1,092,352 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3a-4b and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Alaska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alaska
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Anchorage Municipality — the ~145 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anchorage Municipality's 1,092,352 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 4,972 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Anchorage Municipalityread your own land →