Nelson Lagoon, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Nelson Lagoon, 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 Nelson Lagoon 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 Nelson Lagoon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nelson Lagoon — the short answer
Nelson Lagoon, Alaska: USDA zone 7a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 120K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- Aleutians East Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- Aleutians East Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- Aleutians East Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 120K 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 Aleutians East Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Nelson Lagoon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nelson Lagoon's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nelson Lagoon
Each reading below is measured for Nelson Lagoon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNelson Lagoon runs about 164 days between hard freezes (read from Aleutians East Borough, the closest normal to Nelson Lagoon) — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNelson Lagoon sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Nelson Lagoon
Every plant below cleared Nelson Lagoon's own zone 7a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nelson Lagoon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Nelson Lagoon
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 Nelson Lagoon
Everything above resolves to Nelson Lagoon as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 120K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Aleutians East 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 Nelson Lagoon Average
Nelson Lagoon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Nelson Lagoon
- ●One soil character for all of Nelson Lagoon
- ●Frost dates read at Nelson Lagoon's scale: May 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nelson Lagoon's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nelson Lagoon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nelson Lagoon, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nelson Lagoon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nelson Lagoon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nelson Lagoon average
How we know this about Nelson Lagoon
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 Aleutians East 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 Nelson Lagoon
When does frost risk typically end in Nelson Lagoon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nelson Lagoon typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Nelson Lagoon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nelson Lagoon typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nelson Lagoon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nelson Lagoon sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Oct 7, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nelson Lagoon?
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 Nelson Lagoon. 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 I protect my plants from frost in Nelson Lagoon?
From about Sep 21 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 Oct 21 (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 Oct 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nelson Lagoon's scale — its 7a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nelson Lagoon'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 Nelson Lagoon’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Nelson Lagoon's own scale — the 120,385 acres it covers; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nelson Lagoon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nelson Lagoon's boundary and the 120,385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Nelson Lagoon has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Aleutians East Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nelson Lagoon's 120,385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aleutians East County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aleutians East 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 Aleutians East County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nelson Lagoon's 120,385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nelson Lagoon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 120,385 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 Nelson Lagoon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaNelson Lagoon sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides