Holy Cross, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Holy Cross, 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 Holy Cross 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 Holy Cross — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Holy Cross — the short answer
Holy Cross, Alaska: USDA zone 3a, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 10
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3a is Holy Cross's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holy Cross's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holy Cross
Each reading below is measured for Holy Cross itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHoly Cross runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, the closest normal to Holy Cross) — 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
MeasuredHoly Cross sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a.
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 Holy Cross
Plants matched to Holy Cross's USDA zones 3a, 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 Holy Cross?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 10 — 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.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Holy Cross
We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.
Your land is one point inside Holy Cross
Everything above resolves to Holy Cross as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 19K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Holy Cross Average
Holy Cross Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Holy Cross
- ●One soil character for all of Holy Cross
- ●Frost dates read at Holy Cross's scale: May 15 to Sep 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holy Cross's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holy Cross
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holy Cross, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holy Cross averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holy Cross — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holy Cross average
How we know this about Holy Cross
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Yukon-Koyukuk 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Holy Cross
When does frost risk typically end in Holy Cross?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holy Cross typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Holy Cross?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holy Cross typically arrives around Sep 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 27, so the watching starts about Aug 11 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holy Cross?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holy Cross sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Sep 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Aug 27, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holy Cross?
No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around Holy Cross. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Holy Cross?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Holy Cross 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 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Holy Cross's scale — its 3a band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holy Cross'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 Holy Cross’s own scale
2 of the readings below were taken at Holy Cross's own scale — the 18,675 acres it covers; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holy Cross's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holy Cross's boundary and the 18,675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Holy Cross has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holy Cross's 18,675 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yukon-Koyukuk 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 Yukon-Koyukuk 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 Yukon-Koyukuk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holy Cross's 18,675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holy Cross you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly →
- 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 Holy Cross-wide figureread your own land →