Wainwright, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 2b — 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 Wainwright, 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 Wainwright 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 Wainwright — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wainwright — the short answer
Wainwright, Alaska: USDA zone 2b, about 98 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 2b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 7
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~98
- North Slope Borough normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 North Slope Borough’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 2b is Wainwright's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wainwright's 98-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wainwright
Each reading below is measured for Wainwright itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWainwright runs about 98 days between hard freezes (read from North Slope Borough, the closest normal to Wainwright) — 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
MeasuredWainwright sits in USDA hardiness zone 2b.
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 Wainwright
Plants matched to Wainwright's USDA zones 2b, 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 Wainwright?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 13 — 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 Wainwright
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wainwright. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DPW TEMPORARY MAINTENANCE SHOPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- OLD BIA SCHOOL LAYDOWN YARDBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- DPW TEMPORARY OFFICEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- USAF - WAINWRIGHT SRRSBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- USAF - WAINWRIGHT SRRSSuperfund · 4.5 mi
Measured from Wainwright'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 Wainwright.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Wainwright
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wainwright
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Wainwright
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 Wainwright average
Your land is one point inside Wainwright
Everything above resolves to Wainwright as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from North Slope 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 Wainwright Average
Wainwright Average
- ●USDA Zones 2b, averaged across Wainwright
- ●One soil character for all of Wainwright
- ●Frost dates read at Wainwright's scale: Jun 7 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wainwright's 2b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wainwright
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wainwright, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wainwright averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wainwright — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wainwright average
How we know this about Wainwright
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 North Slope 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 Wainwright
When does frost risk typically end in Wainwright?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wainwright typically lands around Jun 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Wainwright?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wainwright typically arrives around Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 30, so the watching starts about Aug 14 — about 98 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wainwright?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wainwright sees about 98 frost-free days — roughly Jun 7 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 28 to Aug 30, about 63 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wainwright?
The federal record around Wainwright is a meaningful one — 12 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (11), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Wainwright?
With about 98 frost-free days between hard freezes, Wainwright 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 126 to 154 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Wainwright's scale — its 2b band and its 98-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wainwright'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 Wainwright’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Wainwright's own scale — the 6,601 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wainwright's own USDA hardiness band, zones 2bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wainwright, the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wainwright's boundary and the 6,601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wainwright has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom North Slope Borough
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wainwright's 6,601 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom North Slope 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 North Slope 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 North Slope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wainwright's 6,601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wainwright you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,601 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Wainwright-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaWainwright sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides