Selawik, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Selawik, 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 Selawik 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 Selawik — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Selawik — the short answer
Selawik, Alaska: USDA zone 2a, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 2a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- Northwest Arctic Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- Northwest Arctic Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- Northwest Arctic Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Northwest Arctic Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 2a is Selawik's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Selawik's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Selawik
Each reading below is measured for Selawik itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSelawik runs about 127 days between hard freezes (read from Northwest Arctic Borough, the closest normal to Selawik) — 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
MeasuredSelawik 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 Selawik
Plants matched to Selawik'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 Selawik?
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 Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Environmental Check
No contamination sources found near Selawik
We checked 9 federal environmental databases and found no recorded contamination sites in this area. A clean starting point for growing.
Your land is one point inside Selawik
Everything above resolves to Selawik as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Northwest Arctic 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 Selawik Average
Selawik Average
- ●USDA Zones 2a, averaged across Selawik
- ●One soil character for all of Selawik
- ●Frost dates read at Selawik's scale: May 24 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Selawik's 2a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Selawik
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Selawik, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Selawik averages can't show:
We read public map data around Selawik — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Selawik average
How we know this about Selawik
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 Northwest Arctic 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 Selawik
When does frost risk typically end in Selawik?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Selawik typically lands around May 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Selawik?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Selawik typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Selawik?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Selawik sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 14, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Selawik?
No database can certify soil, but the federal record here is clean: we checked all 9 federal contamination source types and found no documented sites within the search radii around Selawik. That means nothing is on record — not that the land is certified clean — so a one-time soil test is still the way to know your own yard's history.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Selawik?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Selawik 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 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Selawik's scale — its 2a band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Selawik'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 Selawik’s own scale
2 of the readings below were taken at Selawik's own scale — the 1,267 acres it covers; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Selawik's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Selawik's boundary and the 1,267 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Selawik has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Northwest Arctic Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Selawik's 1,267 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Northwest Arctic 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 Northwest Arctic 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 Northwest Arctic County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Selawik's 1,267 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Selawik you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,267 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How much sun your beds actually get once the trees leaf outmeasuring sun honestly →
- 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 Selawik-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaSelawik sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.