Kake, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kake, 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 Kake 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 Kake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kake — the short answer
Kake, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Kake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kake's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kake
Each reading below is measured for Kake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKake runs about 211 days between hard freezes (read from Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, the closest normal to Kake) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKake sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Kake
Every plant below cleared Kake's own zone 7b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kake?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Kake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USDA USFS R10 KAKE STP AND LANDFILLBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Keku Islands Barite-Witherite-Lead ProspectsMining · 8.4 mi
- HungerfordMining · 8.8 mi
- Keku IsletMining · 9.3 mi
- Keku Islets Zinc-Silver ProspectMining · 9.3 mi
- KuiuMining · 9.4 mi
Measured from Kake'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 Kake.
Total Sites
7
within ~10 miles of Kake
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kake
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.
Check your specific parcel in Kake
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 Kake average
Your land is one point inside Kake
Everything above resolves to Kake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Kake Average
Kake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Kake
- ●One soil character for all of Kake
- ●Frost dates read at Kake's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kake's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kake, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kake average
How we know this about Kake
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 Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Kake
When does frost risk typically end in Kake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kake typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Kake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kake typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kake sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 27, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kake?
The federal record around Kake is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (5), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kake?
From about Oct 11 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kake's scale — its 7b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kake'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 Kake’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Kake's own scale — the 4,911 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kake, the closest Brownfields record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kake's boundary and the 4,911 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kake's 4,911 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince of Wales-Hyder 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kake's 4,911 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,911 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.8 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 Kake-wide figureread your own land →