Rampart, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rampart, 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 Rampart 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 Rampart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rampart — the short answer
Rampart, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 109K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 10
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 109K 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 Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3b is Rampart's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rampart's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rampart
Each reading below is measured for Rampart itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRampart runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, the closest normal to Rampart) — 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
MeasuredRampart 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 Rampart
Plants matched to Rampart'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 Rampart?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 10 — 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 Rampart
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rampart. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Quail CreekMining · 3.6 mi
- Hoosier CreekMining · 4.4 mi
- Little Minook Jr. Cr. PlacerMining · 4.5 mi
- Little Minook CreekMining · 4.5 mi
- Little Minook Jr CreekMining · 4.6 mi
- Dawson CreekMining · 4.7 mi
- Wolverine MountainMining · 4.7 mi
- Hunter CreekMining · 5.0 mi
- Little Minook Creek PlacerMining · 5.0 mi
- USDOI BLM BOSTIK INC HOOSIER CREEKSuperfund · 5.4 mi
- Quail Creek PlacerMining · 5.7 mi
- Hoosier Creek PlacerMining · 5.9 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rampart'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 Rampart.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Rampart
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rampart
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Rampart
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 Rampart average
Your land is one point inside Rampart
Everything above resolves to Rampart as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 109K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’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 Rampart Average
Rampart Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Rampart
- ●One soil character for all of Rampart
- ●Frost dates read at Rampart's scale: May 15 to Sep 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rampart's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rampart
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rampart, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rampart averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rampart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rampart average
How we know this about Rampart
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 Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area’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 Rampart
When does frost risk typically end in Rampart?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rampart typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Rampart?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rampart typically arrives around Sep 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 27, so the watching starts about Aug 11 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rampart?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rampart sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Sep 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Aug 27, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rampart?
The federal record around Rampart runs heavier than most — 20 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (19), the nearest Mining record about 3.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Rampart?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rampart 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 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rampart's scale — its 3b band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rampart'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 Rampart’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Rampart's own scale — the 108,689 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rampart's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rampart, the closest Mining record about 3.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rampart's boundary and the 108,689 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rampart has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rampart's 108,689 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yukon-Koyukuk 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 Yukon-Koyukuk 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 Yukon-Koyukuk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rampart's 108,689 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rampart you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 108,689 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 3.6 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 Rampart-wide figureread your own land →