Pleasant Valley, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pleasant Valley, 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 Pleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pleasant Valley — the short answer
Pleasant Valley, Alaska: USDA zone 2a, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 2a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 7
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 20K 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 2a is Pleasant Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Valley's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Valley
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPleasant Valley runs about 114 days between hard freezes (read from Fairbanks North Star Borough, the closest normal to Pleasant Valley) — 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
MeasuredPleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley
Plants matched to Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Pleasant Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pleasant Valley StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Tack's General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Chena Valley DevelopmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FNSB - Two Rivers Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- FA00100336ADCB1 002Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- FD00100417AACD1 001Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- FA00100336DBAC1 001Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- JENNY M CREEK BRIDGE DEMOBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- Chena Hot Springs ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Skips CacheUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- FA00100334BDCC1 001Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- Caribou Creek, WellNitrate · 7.5 mi
Measured from Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •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 Pleasant Valley
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 Pleasant Valley average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Valley
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 20K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fairbanks North Star 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 Pleasant Valley Average
Pleasant Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 2a, averaged across Pleasant Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Valley's scale: May 16 to Sep 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Valley's 2a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Valley, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Valley average
How we know this about Pleasant Valley
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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Pleasant Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Valley typically lands around May 16, 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 Jun 6.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Valley typically arrives around Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 24, so the watching starts about Aug 8 — about 114 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Valley sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Aug 24, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Valley?
The federal record around Pleasant Valley is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 gardeners stretch the season in Pleasant Valley?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pleasant Valley 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Valley's scale — its 2a band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Valley's own scale — the 19,888 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Valley's boundary and the 19,888 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pleasant Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fairbanks North Star Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Valley's 19,888 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Valley's 19,888 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,888 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Pleasant Valley-wide figureread your own land →