Unalaska, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Unalaska, 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 Unalaska 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 Unalaska — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Unalaska — the short answer
Unalaska, Alaska: USDA zone 8a, across 65K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (statewide)
- Apr 16 - May 15
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- First hard freeze (statewide)
- Sep 24 - Oct 29
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, state middle half
- City area
- 65K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Where no local normal resolves, the figure is the statewide middle-half window, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Growing Season
Zone 8a is Unalaska's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against that, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Unalaska
Each reading below is measured for Unalaska itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredUnalaska 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 Unalaska
Every plant below cleared Unalaska's own zone 8a. Each card opens that plant's Alaska profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Unalaska
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Unalaska. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNALASKA AIRPORTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- USDOT FAA DUTCH HARBOR FACSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- USCG MSD UNALASKABrownfields · 1.2 mi
- DUTCH HARBOR SEDIMENT SITESuperfund · 1.3 mi
- DUTCH HARBORToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- FACTORY TRAWLER SUPPLYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- DELTA WESTERN DUTCH HARBORBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- ALASKA CHADUX CORPORATION UNALASKA WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE #1834Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- AMERICAN PRESIDENTS LINE DUTCH HARBOR TERMINALBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CHEVRON 1001428Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- UNALASKA LANDFILLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Unalaska'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 Unalaska.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Unalaska
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Unalaska
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Unalaska
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Unalaska, Mining runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Unalaska. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Unalaska
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 Unalaska average
Your land is one point inside Unalaska
Everything above resolves to Unalaska as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 65K acres. 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 Unalaska Average
Unalaska Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Unalaska
- ●One soil character for all of Unalaska
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Unalaska's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Unalaska
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Unalaska, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Unalaska averages can't show:
We read public map data around Unalaska — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Unalaska average
How we know this about Unalaska
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Unalaska
When does frost risk typically end in Unalaska?
Unalaska has no hard-freeze normal of its own, so it follows Alaska's statewide window: the middle half of counties see their last spring hard freeze (28°F) around Apr 16 - May 15 and their first fall hard freeze around Sep 24 - Oct 29, per NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020). Frost dates shift with elevation and local microclimate, so watch your own site's cold pockets. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — light frosts can still bite for a few more weeks, so tender transplants usually wait another 2–3 weeks.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Unalaska?
The federal record around Unalaska is a meaningful one — 44 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (19), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Unalaska?
As the season closes around Alaska's statewide first fall hard freeze (28°F) near Sep 24 - Oct 29 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020)), 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 the first hard night. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Unalaska's scale — its 8a band and its zone 8a. Your yard writes its own version of Unalaska'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 Unalaska’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Unalaska's own scale — the 65,416 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Unalaska's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Unalaska, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Unalaska's boundary and the 65,416 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Unalaska's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost window — no local hard-freeze normal resolved here, so the statewide dates stand infrom Alaska
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Unalaska's 65,416 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Aleutians West County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Aleutians West 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 West County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Unalaska's 65,416 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Unalaska you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 65,416 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Unalaska-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaUnalaska sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides