Palmer, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Palmer, 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 Palmer 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 Palmer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palmer — the short answer
Palmer, Alaska: USDA zone 5a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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
- City area
- 3K 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 5a is Palmer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palmer's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palmer
Each reading below is measured for Palmer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPalmer runs about 145 days between hard freezes (read from Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the closest normal to Palmer) — 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
MeasuredPalmer sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Palmer
Every plant below cleared Palmer's own zone 5a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palmer?
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 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. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Palmer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palmer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bj's Services Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Alaska Veterans and Pioneers HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CARQUEST AUTO PARTS #4311Brownfields · 500 ft
- Former Mac's Plumbing And HeatinUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SA01800232DDDD1 004Nitrate · 1100 ft
- CHEVRON OF PALMERBrownfields · 1400 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 3458Brownfields · 1500 ft
- CIMG-Palmer ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Palmer Machinery CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MSB-Matanuska-Susitna Borough AdminUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 2 Go Mart-Tesoro Northstore #0077Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Willow Creek Mine & Millsite #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palmer'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 Palmer.
Total Sites
330
within ~10 miles of Palmer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palmer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palmer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palmer, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 174 sites within ~10 miles of Palmer. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Palmer
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 Palmer average
Your land is one point inside Palmer
Everything above resolves to Palmer as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Matanuska-Susitna Borough’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 Palmer Average
Palmer Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Palmer
- ●One soil character for all of Palmer
- ●Frost dates read at Palmer's scale: May 6 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palmer's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palmer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palmer, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palmer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palmer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palmer average
How we know this about Palmer
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 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 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 Palmer
When does frost risk typically end in Palmer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palmer 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 Palmer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palmer 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 Palmer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palmer 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 Palmer?
The federal record around Palmer is a meaningful one — 330 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (174), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Palmer?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Palmer 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 Palmer's scale — its 5a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palmer'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 Palmer’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Palmer's own scale — the 3,247 acres it covers and 330 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palmer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 330 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palmer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palmer's boundary and the 3,247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Palmer 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 Palmer's 3,247 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Matanuska-Susitna County
- 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 Palmer's 3,247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palmer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,247 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Palmer-wide figureread your own land →