Healy, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Healy, 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 Healy 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 Healy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Healy — the short answer
Healy, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 440K 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
- 440K 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 Healy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Healy's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Healy
Each reading below is measured for Healy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHealy runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Denali Borough, the closest normal to Healy) — 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
MeasuredHealy 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 Healy
Plants matched to Healy'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 Healy?
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. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Healy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Healy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FC01200705ADAD1 001Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- FC01200704ABDD1 003Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- FC01200703BBDC1 001Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- FC01200704DCDA3 002Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- Moose Creek PlacerMining · 5.4 mi
- Moose CreekMining · 5.4 mi
- Big Moose CreekMining · 5.4 mi
- ARRC - HEALYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- ALASKA DOT & PF HEALY MAINTENANCE STATIONBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- RamblerMining · 6.8 mi
- Liberty BellMining · 7.1 mi
- HEALY POWER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Healy'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 Healy.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Healy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Healy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Healy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Healy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Healy — Mining (12 sites) and Nitrate (12 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Healy
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 Healy average
Your land is one point inside Healy
Everything above resolves to Healy as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 440K 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 Healy Average
Healy Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Healy
- ●One soil character for all of Healy
- ●Frost dates read at Healy's scale: May 24 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Healy's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Healy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Healy, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Healy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Healy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Healy average
How we know this about Healy
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 Healy
When does frost risk typically end in Healy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Healy 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 Healy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Healy 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 Healy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Healy 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 Healy?
The federal record around Healy is a meaningful one — 33 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (12), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.8 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 Healy?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Healy 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 Healy's scale — its 3b band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Healy'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 Healy’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Healy's own scale — the 439,657 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Healy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Healy, the closest Nitrate record about 3.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Healy's boundary and the 439,657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Healy 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 Healy's 439,657 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 Healy's 439,657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Healy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 439,657 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.8 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 Healy-wide figureread your own land →