Steele Creek, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Steele Creek, 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 Steele Creek 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 Steele Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Steele Creek — the short answer
Steele Creek, Alaska: USDA zone 3a, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 59K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 7
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- Fairbanks North Star Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 59K 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 Fairbanks North Star Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3a is Steele Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Steele Creek's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Steele Creek
Each reading below is measured for Steele Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSteele Creek runs about 114 days between hard freezes (read from Fairbanks North Star Borough, the closest normal to Steele Creek) — 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
MeasuredSteele Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 3a.
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 Steele Creek
Plants matched to Steele Creek's USDA zones 3a, 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 Steele Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 7 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Steele Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Steele Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APMA 9156-GIL EXPLORATION SITEToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- FA00100229BBAB1 002Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- FA00100230ABCC1 001Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- More & More Concrete, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- FA00100125BDBB1 002Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- FA00100122ADCC1 002Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- FA00100229BDAD1 001Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- FA00100125DADD1 001Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- Rose CreekMining · 3.2 mi
- Columbia GroupMining · 3.2 mi
- Douglas M. GriffithUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- AndersonMining · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Steele Creek'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 Steele Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Steele Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Steele Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Steele Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Steele Creek — Mining (115 sites) and Nitrate (424 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Steele Creek
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 Steele Creek average
Your land is one point inside Steele Creek
Everything above resolves to Steele Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 59K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fairbanks North Star Borough’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 Steele Creek Average
Steele Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 3a, averaged across Steele Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Steele Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Steele Creek's scale: May 16 to Sep 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Steele Creek's 3a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Steele Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Steele Creek, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Steele Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Steele Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Steele Creek average
How we know this about Steele Creek
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 Fairbanks North Star 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 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 Steele Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Steele Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Steele Creek typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Steele Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Steele Creek typically arrives around Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 24, so the watching starts about Aug 8 — about 114 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Steele Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Steele Creek sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Aug 24, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Steele Creek?
The federal record around Steele Creek runs heavier than most — 662 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (424), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.5 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 Steele Creek?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Steele Creek 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Steele Creek's scale — its 3a band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Steele Creek'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 Steele Creek’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Steele Creek's own scale — the 59,451 acres it covers and 662 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Steele Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 662 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Steele Creek, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Steele Creek's boundary and the 59,451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Steele Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fairbanks North Star Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Steele Creek's 59,451 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star 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 Fairbanks North Star County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Steele Creek's 59,451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Steele Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 59,451 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.5 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 Steele Creek-wide figureread your own land →