Sand Point, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, potato, kale, and rhubarb — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sand Point, 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 Sand Point 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 Sand Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sand Point — the short answer
Sand Point, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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
- City area
- 5K 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 7b is Sand Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sand Point's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sand Point
Each reading below is measured for Sand Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSand Point runs about 164 days between hard freezes (read from Aleutians East Borough, the closest normal to Sand Point) — 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
MeasuredSand Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Sand Point
Plants matched to Sand Point's USDA zones 7b, 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 Sand Point?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Sand Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sand Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Herman LodeMining · 0.7 mi
- Pmrgx-7Mining · 0.9 mi
- VentMining · 1.3 mi
- USDOT FAA SAND POINT STATIONSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- TRIDENT SEAFOODS SAND POINT FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- TRIDENT SEAFOODS SAND POINT FACILITYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Brown ZincMining · 1.7 mi
- RhodoMining · 1.7 mi
- West LodesMining · 1.8 mi
- Pmrgx-6Mining · 2.6 mi
- Unnamed (north of Simeon Bight)Mining · 3.2 mi
- FAA Sand PointUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sand Point'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 Sand Point.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Sand Point
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sand Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sand Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sand Point, Mining runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Sand Point. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Sand Point
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 Sand Point average
Your land is one point inside Sand Point
Everything above resolves to Sand Point as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Aleutians East 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 Sand Point Average
Sand Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sand Point
- ●One soil character for all of Sand Point
- ●Frost dates read at Sand Point's scale: May 10 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sand Point's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sand Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sand Point, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sand Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sand Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sand Point average
How we know this about Sand Point
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 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 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 Sand Point
When does frost risk typically end in Sand Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sand Point 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 Sand Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sand Point 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 Sand Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sand Point 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 Sand Point?
The federal record around Sand Point is a meaningful one — 41 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (36), the nearest Mining record about 0.7 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Sand Point?
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 Sand Point's scale — its 7b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sand Point'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 Sand Point’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Sand Point's own scale — the 5,126 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sand Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sand Point, the closest Mining record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sand Point's boundary and the 5,126 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sand Point 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 Sand Point's 5,126 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aleutians East 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 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 Sand Point's 5,126 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sand Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,126 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.7 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 Sand Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaSand Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides