Tenakee Springs, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tenakee Springs, 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 Tenakee Springs 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 Tenakee Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tenakee Springs — the short answer
Tenakee Springs, Alaska: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- Hoonah-Angoon Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Tenakee Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tenakee Springs's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tenakee Springs
Each reading below is measured for Tenakee Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTenakee Springs runs about 237 days between hard freezes (read from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, the closest normal to Tenakee Springs) — 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
MeasuredTenakee Springs 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 Tenakee Springs
Every plant below cleared Tenakee Springs's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tenakee Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Tenakee Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tenakee Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Columbia PointMining · 1.0 mi
- Unnamed Copper OccurrenceMining · 1.2 mi
- 3 J Copper-Molybdenum ProspectMining · 3.0 mi
- Three JMining · 3.1 mi
- Baldy Lode Copper ProspectMining · 3.6 mi
- Baldy Lode GroupMining · 3.6 mi
- Big Ledge Nickel-Copper ProspectMining · 5.3 mi
- Big LedgeMining · 5.7 mi
- BLACKWELL LOGGING CAMP-KENNEL CREEK LOGGINGBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- RedoneMining · 8.3 mi
Measured from Tenakee Springs'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 Tenakee Springs.
Total Sites
10
within ~10 miles of Tenakee Springs
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
9 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tenakee Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Tenakee Springs
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 Tenakee Springs average
Your land is one point inside Tenakee Springs
Everything above resolves to Tenakee Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hoonah-Angoon Census Area’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 Tenakee Springs Average
Tenakee Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Tenakee Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Tenakee Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Tenakee Springs's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tenakee Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tenakee Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tenakee Springs, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tenakee Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tenakee Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tenakee Springs average
How we know this about Tenakee Springs
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 Hoonah-Angoon 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 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 Tenakee Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Tenakee Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tenakee Springs typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Tenakee Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tenakee Springs typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tenakee Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tenakee Springs sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Nov 4, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tenakee Springs?
The federal record around Tenakee Springs is light — 10 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (9), the nearest Mining record about 1.0 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tenakee Springs?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tenakee Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tenakee Springs'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 Tenakee Springs’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Tenakee Springs's own scale — the 8,415 acres it covers and 10 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tenakee Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 10 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tenakee Springs, the closest Mining record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tenakee Springs's boundary and the 8,415 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tenakee Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hoonah-Angoon Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tenakee Springs's 8,415 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hoonah-Angoon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hoonah-Angoon 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 Hoonah-Angoon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tenakee Springs's 8,415 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tenakee Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,415 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.0 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 Tenakee Springs-wide figureread your own land →