Saxman, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, potato, kale, and rhubarb — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Saxman, 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 Saxman 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 Saxman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saxman — the short answer
Saxman, Alaska: USDA zone 8a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 619 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 619 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 Ketchikan Gateway Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Saxman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saxman's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saxman
Each reading below is measured for Saxman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSaxman runs about 223 days between hard freezes (read from Ketchikan Gateway Borough, the closest normal to Saxman) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSaxman sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Saxman
Plants matched to Saxman's USDA zones 8a, 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 Saxman?
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 Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Saxman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saxman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- South Tongass ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- USCG - Upper And Lower BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Gold NuggetMining · 1.1 mi
- BirdseyeMining · 1.3 mi
- VenitiaMining · 1.4 mi
- ADEC KETCHIKAN PUBLIC WRKSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- US COAST GUARD BASE KETCHIKANBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- US COAST GUARD BASE KETCHIKANToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- PETRO MARINE SERVICES-KETCHIKANBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- TESORO ALASKA KETCHIKAN TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- KETCHIKAN CY OF LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- ANDERES OIL STEDMAN STBrownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saxman'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 Saxman.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Saxman
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saxman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saxman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saxman, Mining runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Saxman. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Saxman
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 Saxman average
Your land is one point inside Saxman
Everything above resolves to Saxman as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 619 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Ketchikan Gateway 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 Saxman Average
Saxman Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Saxman
- ●One soil character for all of Saxman
- ●Frost dates read at Saxman's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saxman's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saxman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saxman, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saxman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saxman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saxman average
How we know this about Saxman
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 Ketchikan Gateway 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 Saxman
When does frost risk typically end in Saxman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saxman typically lands around Apr 1, 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 Apr 22.
When is the first frost in Saxman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saxman typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saxman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saxman sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 27, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saxman?
The federal record around Saxman is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (52), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Saxman?
From about Oct 11 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 Nov 10 (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 Nov 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saxman's scale — its 8a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saxman'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 Saxman’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Saxman's own scale — the 619 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saxman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saxman, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saxman's boundary and the 619 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Saxman has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Ketchikan Gateway Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saxman's 619 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ketchikan Gateway 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 Ketchikan Gateway 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 Ketchikan Gateway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saxman's 619 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saxman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 619 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Saxman-wide figureread your own land →