Lake Louise, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2a — 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 Lake Louise, 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 Lake Louise 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 Lake Louise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Louise — the short answer
Lake Louise, Alaska: USDA zone 2a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 36K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 2a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 36K 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 Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 2a is Lake Louise's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Louise's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Louise
Each reading below is measured for Lake Louise itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Louise runs about 145 days between hard freezes (read from Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the closest normal to Lake Louise) — 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
MeasuredLake Louise sits in USDA hardiness zone 2a.
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 Lake Louise
Plants matched to Lake Louise's USDA zones 2a, 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 Lake Louise?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Lake Louise
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 Lake Louise
Everything above resolves to Lake Louise as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 36K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Matanuska-Susitna 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 Lake Louise Average
Lake Louise Average
- ●USDA Zones 2a, averaged across Lake Louise
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Louise
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Louise's scale: May 6 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Louise's 2a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Louise
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Louise, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Louise averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Louise — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Louise average
How we know this about Lake Louise
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 Matanuska-Susitna 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 Lake Louise
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Louise?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Louise typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Lake Louise?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Louise typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Louise?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Louise sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 14, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Louise?
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 Lake Louise. 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 Lake Louise?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Lake Louise 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 6 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Lake Louise's scale — its 2a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Louise'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 Lake Louise’s own scale
2 of the readings below were taken at Lake Louise's own scale — the 35,684 acres it covers; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Louise's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Louise's boundary and the 35,684 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Louise has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Matanuska-Susitna Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Louise's 35,684 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Matanuska-Susitna 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 Matanuska-Susitna 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 Matanuska-Susitna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Louise's 35,684 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Louise you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,684 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 Lake Louise-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaLake Louise sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides