Point Hope, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Point Hope, 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 Point Hope 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 Point Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Point Hope — the short answer
Point Hope, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 98 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 7
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~98
- North Slope 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 North Slope Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3b is Point Hope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Point Hope's 98-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Point Hope
Each reading below is measured for Point Hope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPoint Hope runs about 98 days between hard freezes (read from North Slope Borough, the closest normal to Point Hope) — 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
MeasuredPoint Hope sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Point Hope
Plants matched to Point Hope's USDA zones 3b, 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 Point Hope?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 13 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Point Hope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Point Hope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USAF 611th - Cape Lisburne LRRSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BULK TANK FARMBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- FIRE STATIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- DPW-HEMFBrownfields · 2.8 mi
Measured from Point Hope'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 Point Hope.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Point Hope
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Point Hope
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 Point Hope average
Your land is one point inside Point Hope
Everything above resolves to Point Hope as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from North Slope 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 Point Hope Average
Point Hope Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Point Hope
- ●One soil character for all of Point Hope
- ●Frost dates read at Point Hope's scale: Jun 7 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Point Hope's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Point Hope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Point Hope, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Point Hope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Point Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Point Hope average
How we know this about Point Hope
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 North Slope 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 Point Hope
When does frost risk typically end in Point Hope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Point Hope typically lands around Jun 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Point Hope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Point Hope typically arrives around Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 30, so the watching starts about Aug 14 — about 98 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Point Hope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Point Hope sees about 98 frost-free days — roughly Jun 7 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 28 to Aug 30, about 63 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Point Hope?
The federal record around Point Hope is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Point Hope?
With about 98 frost-free days between hard freezes, Point Hope 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 126 to 154 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Point Hope's scale — its 3b band and its 98-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Point Hope'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 Point Hope’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Point Hope's own scale — the 3,212 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Point Hope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Point Hope, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Point Hope's boundary and the 3,212 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Point Hope has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom North Slope Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Point Hope's 3,212 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom North Slope 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 North Slope 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 North Slope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Point Hope's 3,212 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Point Hope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,212 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Point Hope-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaPoint Hope sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides