Harding-Birch Lakes, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — 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, potato, rhubarb, and kale; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Harding-Birch Lakes, 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 Harding-Birch Lakes 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 Harding-Birch Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Harding-Birch Lakes — the short answer
Harding-Birch Lakes, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 137K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 7
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 137K 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3b is Harding-Birch Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harding-Birch Lakes's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harding-Birch Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Harding-Birch Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHarding-Birch Lakes runs about 114 days between hard freezes (read from Fairbanks North Star Borough, the closest normal to Harding-Birch Lakes) — 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
MeasuredHarding-Birch Lakes 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 Harding-Birch Lakes
Plants matched to Harding-Birch Lakes'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 Harding-Birch Lakes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 7 — 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 Harding-Birch Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harding-Birch Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T - Canyon Creek Microwave RepeaterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- USAF CANYON CREEK RRSBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- USAF CANYON CREEK RRSSuperfund · 5.4 mi
- Democrat CreekMining · 5.8 mi
- Democrat LodeMining · 6.1 mi
- Banner CreekMining · 7.1 mi
- Banner Dike ZoneMining · 7.3 mi
- Buckeye CreekMining · 8.1 mi
- Hinkley GulchMining · 8.3 mi
- Buckeye ZoneMining · 8.8 mi
Measured from Harding-Birch Lakes'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 Harding-Birch Lakes.
Total Sites
11
within ~10 miles of Harding-Birch Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harding-Birch Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harding-Birch Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Harding-Birch Lakes
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 Harding-Birch Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Harding-Birch Lakes
Everything above resolves to Harding-Birch Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 137K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fairbanks North Star 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 Harding-Birch Lakes Average
Harding-Birch Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Harding-Birch Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Harding-Birch Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Harding-Birch Lakes's scale: May 16 to Sep 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harding-Birch Lakes's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harding-Birch Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harding-Birch Lakes, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harding-Birch Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harding-Birch Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harding-Birch Lakes average
How we know this about Harding-Birch Lakes
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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Harding-Birch Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Harding-Birch Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harding-Birch Lakes typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Harding-Birch Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harding-Birch Lakes typically arrives around Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 24, so the watching starts about Aug 8 — about 114 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harding-Birch Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harding-Birch Lakes sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Aug 24, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harding-Birch Lakes?
The federal record around Harding-Birch Lakes is a meaningful one — 11 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.8 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 gardeners stretch the season in Harding-Birch Lakes?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Harding-Birch Lakes 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Harding-Birch Lakes's scale — its 3b band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harding-Birch Lakes'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 Harding-Birch Lakes’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Harding-Birch Lakes's own scale — the 137,057 acres it covers and 11 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harding-Birch Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 11 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harding-Birch Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harding-Birch Lakes's boundary and the 137,057 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Harding-Birch Lakes has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fairbanks North Star Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harding-Birch Lakes's 137,057 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harding-Birch Lakes's 137,057 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harding-Birch Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 137,057 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.8 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 Harding-Birch Lakes-wide figureread your own land →