Wales, Alaska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, potato, rhubarb, and kale; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wales, 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 Wales 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 Wales — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wales — the short answer
Wales, Alaska: USDA zone 3b, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 19
- Nome Census Area normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- Nome Census Area 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 Nome Census Area’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 3b is Wales's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wales's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wales
Each reading below is measured for Wales itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWales runs about 118 days between hard freezes (read from Nome Census Area, the closest normal to Wales) — 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
MeasuredWales sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Wales
Plants matched to Wales's USDA zones 3b, 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 Wales?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 19 — 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 Wales
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wales. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USARMY USACE CAPE PRINCE OF WALESSuperfund · 1900 ft
- Cape MountainMining · 2.8 mi
- USAF LRRS TIN CITYSuperfund · 3.1 mi
- USAF LRRS TIN CITYBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- Cape Mountain DepositMining · 3.7 mi
- USAF 611th - Tin City AFSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
Measured from Wales'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 Wales.
Total Sites
7
within ~10 miles of Wales
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wales
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wales
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
- •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 Wales
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 Wales average
Your land is one point inside Wales
Everything above resolves to Wales as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nome 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 Wales Average
Wales Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Wales
- ●One soil character for all of Wales
- ●Frost dates read at Wales's scale: May 24 to Sep 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wales's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wales
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wales, Alaska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wales averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wales — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wales average
How we know this about Wales
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 Nome 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 Wales
When does frost risk typically end in Wales?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wales 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 Wales?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wales typically arrives around Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 5, so the watching starts about Aug 20 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wales?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wales sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 5, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wales?
The federal record around Wales is a meaningful one — 7 documented sites, mostly Superfund entries (3), the nearest Superfund record about 0.4 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 Wales?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Wales 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 146 to 174 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 Wales's scale — its 3b band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wales'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 Wales’s own scale
3 of the readings below were taken at Wales's own scale — the 1,433 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wales's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wales, the closest Superfund record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wales's boundary and the 1,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wales has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nome Census Area
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wales's 1,433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nome 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 Nome 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 Nome County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wales's 1,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wales you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.4 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 Wales-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alaska
Wider growing context
What grows across AlaskaWales sits outside our named growing regions, so Alaska as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides