Hope, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hope, 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 Hope 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 Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hope — the short answer
Hope, Alaska: USDA zone 5b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 33K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- Kenai Peninsula Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 33K 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 Kenai Peninsula Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Hope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hope's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hope
Each reading below is measured for Hope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHope runs about 148 days between hard freezes (read from Kenai Peninsula Borough, the closest normal to Hope) — 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
MeasuredHope sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Hope
Every plant below cleared Hope's own zone 5b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hope?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — 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 Hope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Windy Point Microwave RepeaterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Bear CreekMining · 2.3 mi
- Robinson & BowmanMining · 2.3 mi
- Robinson and BowmanMining · 2.4 mi
- Coon & PlowmanMining · 2.7 mi
- Coon and PlowmanMining · 2.7 mi
- Gold Stamp Mining Co.Mining · 3.2 mi
- Nearhouse & SmithMining · 4.0 mi
- Kenai StarMining · 4.9 mi
- Francisco ProspectMining · 4.9 mi
- SunshineMining · 5.3 mi
- Whistler ProspectMining · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hope'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 Hope.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hope
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Hope
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 Hope average
Your land is one point inside Hope
Everything above resolves to Hope as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 33K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kenai Peninsula 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 Hope Average
Hope Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Hope
- ●One soil character for all of Hope
- ●Frost dates read at Hope's scale: May 2 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hope's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hope, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hope average
How we know this about Hope
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 Kenai Peninsula 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 Hope
When does frost risk typically end in Hope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hope typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Hope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hope typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hope sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 13, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hope?
The federal record around Hope is a meaningful one — 24 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Hope?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Hope 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 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 2 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Hope's scale — its 5b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hope'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 Hope’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Hope's own scale — the 33,101 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hope, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hope's boundary and the 33,101 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hope has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kenai Peninsula Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hope's 33,101 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kenai Peninsula County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kenai Peninsula 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 Kenai Peninsula County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hope's 33,101 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 33,101 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Hope-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaHope sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides