Ferry, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ferry, 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 Ferry 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 Ferry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ferry — the short answer
Ferry, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 41K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- Denali Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- Denali Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Denali Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 41K 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 Denali Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3b is Ferry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferry's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferry
Each reading below is measured for Ferry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFerry runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Denali Borough, the closest normal to Ferry) — 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
MeasuredFerry sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Ferry
Plants matched to Ferry's USDA zones 3b, 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 Ferry?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 19 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Ferry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RamblerMining · 0.9 mi
- EVA CREEK OPERATIONS FACILITYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Liberty BellMining · 1.8 mi
- Big Moose CreekMining · 1.9 mi
- Moose CreekMining · 1.9 mi
- Moose Creek PlacerMining · 1.9 mi
- Unnamed (near Spruce Creek)Mining · 2.3 mi
- Spruce CreekMining · 2.5 mi
- Rex CreekMining · 4.4 mi
- Silver DollarMining · 5.8 mi
- CaliforniaMining · 5.9 mi
- California CreekMining · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferry'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 Ferry.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferry, Mining runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Ferry. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Ferry
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 Ferry average
Your land is one point inside Ferry
Everything above resolves to Ferry as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 41K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Denali Borough’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 Ferry Average
Ferry Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Ferry
- ●One soil character for all of Ferry
- ●Frost dates read at Ferry's scale: May 24 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferry's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferry, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferry average
How we know this about Ferry
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 Denali Borough’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 Ferry
When does frost risk typically end in Ferry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferry typically lands around May 24, 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Ferry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferry typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferry sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 5, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferry?
The federal record around Ferry runs heavier than most — 28 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (19), the nearest Mining record about 0.9 miles 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 Ferry?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Ferry 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 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Ferry's scale — its 3b band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferry'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 Ferry’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Ferry's own scale — the 40,706 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferry, the closest Mining record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferry's boundary and the 40,706 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ferry has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Denali Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ferry's 40,706 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Denali 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 Denali 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 Denali County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferry's 40,706 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 40,706 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.9 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 Ferry-wide figureread your own land →