Place guide
Planting zones in Anchorage, AK
This metro spans USDA zones 3b to 5b, so there is no single zone for Anchorage, AK and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 43% of its ZIP codes are zone 5a; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Anchorage, AK as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
The growing season in Anchorage, AK is closing
Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives August 25 – October 3 across the 16 NOAA stations serving this metro area .
Your next season already has a date
The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around March 6 – April 11 — counted back from a last spring freeze of May 1 – June 6 here.
These are ranges across the whole metro area. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.
All 16 stations agreeAt least one station
Every one of the 16 NOAA stations serving this metro area counts June 6 – August 25 as growing season (80 days). Widening to any single station gives May 1 – October 3 (155 days).
That is a 75-day difference inside one metro area — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.
Which zone you are in depends where you are
Anchorage, AK covers 5 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the metro one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — which is fine for the 43% in zone 5a and wrong for the other 57%. Here is the actual split.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5a | 12 | 43% | |
| 5b | 7 | 25% | |
| 4b | 5 | 18% | |
| 4a | 3 | 11% | |
| 3b | 1 | 4% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the metro's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
Those are the earliest and latest medians among the 16 stations serving this metro — not an average, and not one station standing in for the rest. Half of years freeze later than a station's own median.
The spread is the point. Even in a metro that is one hardiness zone throughout, its stations disagree about the last spring freeze. Hardiness zone and frost date measure different things — a zone is the average annual coldest night, a freeze date is when the season turns — and a place can be uniform in one and varied in the other. Use the tools below with your own ZIP rather than the ends of this range.
Your growing season
NOAA publishes a growing-season length for each station, and across the 16 stations serving Anchorage, AK it runs 77–156 days . That figure is published, not computed from the two freeze dates — subtracting one from the other gives the wrong answer wherever a season crosses New Year. Mean summer high (June–August) runs 58–69 °F , below the 90 °F point where cool-season crops reliably bolt. Summer rain over the same months runs 5.2–9.7" across those 13 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 48% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 66 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
When to start seeds in Anchorage, AK
Every spring job for 63 crop dates, counted from this metro's own last spring freeze. Each is a range across all 16 stations — the earliest and latest that job falls anywhere in the metro — because no one station speaks for the whole area.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Onions | Start indoors | March 6 – April 11 | 8 weeks before |
| Peppers | Start indoors | March 6 – April 11 | 8 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Collards | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Kale | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Peas | Direct sow | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Spinach | Direct sow | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Sweet Potato | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Tomatoes | Start indoors | March 20 – April 25 | 6 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Start indoors | March 27 – May 2 | 5 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Start indoors | March 27 – May 2 | 5 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Start indoors | March 27 – May 2 | 5 weeks before |
| Arugula | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Beets | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Mustard Greens | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Okra | Start indoors | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Radishes | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Turnips | Direct sow | April 3 – May 9 | 4 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Set out | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Carrots | Direct sow | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Direct sow | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Set out | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Cucumbers | Start indoors | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Set out | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Direct sow | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Set out | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Direct sow | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Set out | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Pumpkins | Start indoors | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Summer Squash | Start indoors | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Winter Squash | Start indoors | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Zucchini | Start indoors | April 10 – May 16 | 3 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Direct sow | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Set out | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Set out | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Cilantro | Direct sow | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Set out | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Direct sow | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Set out | April 17 – May 23 | 2 weeks before |
| Dill | Direct sow | April 24 – May 30 | 1 week before |
| Bush Beans | Direct sow | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Set out | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Direct sow | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Set out | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Direct sow | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Set out | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Sweet Corn | Direct sow | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Tomatoes | Set out | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Direct sow | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Set out | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Direct sow | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Set out | May 8 – June 13 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Direct sow | May 15 – June 20 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Direct sow | May 15 – June 20 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Set out | May 15 – June 20 | 2 weeks after |
| Peppers | Set out | May 15 – June 20 | 2 weeks after |
| Southern Peas | Direct sow | May 15 – June 20 | 2 weeks after |
| Sweet Potato | Set out | May 15 – June 20 | 2 weeks after |
The week offsets are conventional extension guidance and vary by variety; the freeze dates they are counted from are measured. For a single date rather than a range, run when do I start my seeds? with your own ZIP code.
What survives the winter changes across Anchorage, AK
Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 48 come through the winter in zone 5a and only 17 in zone 3b. That is a different garden at each end of the same metro.
| Zone | ZIPs | Survive | Fail for being too warm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3b | 1 | 17 of 74 | 0 |
| 4a | 3 | 34 of 74 | 0 |
| 4b | 5 | 34 of 74 | 0 |
| 5a | 12 | 48 of 74 | 0 |
| 5b | 7 | 48 of 74 | 0 |
The last column is the counterintuitive one, and it is why the totals do not simply rise as the winters get milder. Most temperate fruit needs a documented number of hours below about 45 °F to break dormancy and set a crop, so an apple fails in a winter that is too warm; currants and rhubarb cook in the summer heat that comes with it. See the full list with reasons.
Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic
- Last spring freeze
- Plan to June 30 to be careful. Median May 1 – June 6 across 16 stations; April 19 is the optimistic end.
- First fall freeze
- Plan to August 9 to be careful. Median August 25 – October 3 across 16 stations; October 16 is the optimistic end.
NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.
The 16 stations behind these numbers
All 16 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 306 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole metro area.
A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.
Every figure above comes from these, and each is named so you can check it. Which station serves a given ZIP code, and how far away it is, varies across the metro — the table below gives it per ZIP code rather than this page averaging it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alyeska, AK | USC00500243 | May 8 | September 29 | 142 days |
| Anchorage Forecast Office, AK | USC00500275 | May 5 | September 29 | 147 days |
| Anchorage Lake Hood AP, AK | USW00026491 | May 1 | October 3 | 156 days |
| Anchorage Merrill FLD, AK | USW00026409 | May 1 | September 29 | 150 days |
| Anderson Lake, AK | USC00500302 | May 16 | September 23 | 128 days |
| Eagle Rvr Gakona Circle, AK | USC00502645 | May 9 | September 26 | 139 days |
| Eagle Rvr Nature Ctr, AK | USC00502642 | May 16 | September 20 | 125 days |
| Ft Richardson Wtp, AK | USC00503163 | May 9 | September 26 | 138 days |
| Glen Alps, AK | USC00503299 | May 18 | September 23 | 125 days |
| Hayes River, AK | USC00503573 | June 2 | September 8 | 98 days |
| Lazy Mtn, AK | USC00505464 | May 22 | September 16 | 114 days |
| Mckinley Park, AK | USC00505778 | June 6 | August 25 | 77 days |
| Sutton 1 W, AK | USC00508915 | June 1 | September 6 | 98 days |
| Talkeetna AP, AK | USW00026528 | May 16 | September 16 | 122 days |
| Whites Crossing, AK | USC00509790 | May 29 | September 7 | 100 days |
| Willow West, AK | USC00509861 | May 15 | September 18 | 126 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Every ZIP code in Anchorage, AK
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per metro area, so this is the exact answer rather than the metro area's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.
| ZIP code | USDA zone | Nearest NOAA station | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 99501 | 5a | Anchorage Merrill FLD, AK | 0.4 km |
| 99502 | 5b | Anchorage Forecast Office, AK | 1.1 km |
| 99504 | 5a | Ft Richardson Wtp, AK | 4.7 km |
| 99505 | 5a | Ft Richardson Wtp, AK | 6.4 km |
| 99506 | 5a | Anchorage Merrill FLD, AK | 6.6 km |
| 99507 | 5a | Glen Alps, AK | 4.5 km |
| 99508 | 5a | Anchorage Merrill FLD, AK | 2.6 km |
| 99513 | 5b | Anchorage Merrill FLD, AK | 1.7 km |
| 99515 | 5a | Anchorage Forecast Office, AK | 6.7 km |
| 99516 | 5b | Glen Alps, AK | 2.5 km |
| 99517 | 5b | Anchorage Lake Hood AP, AK | 2.0 km |
| 99518 | 5a | Anchorage Lake Hood AP, AK | 4.8 km |
| 99530 | 5b | Anchorage Lake Hood AP, AK | 1.2 km |
| 99540 | 5b | Alyeska, AK | 12.5 km |
| 99567 | 5a | Eagle Rvr Nature Ctr, AK | 15.2 km |
| 99577 | 5a | Eagle Rvr Nature Ctr, AK | 6.7 km |
| 99587 | 5b | Alyeska, AK | 12.7 km |
| 99623 | 4b | Eagle Rvr Gakona Circle, AK | 24.2 km |
| 99645 | 5a | Lazy Mtn, AK | 2.9 km |
| 99652 | 4a | Whites Crossing, AK | 21.3 km |
| 99654 | 5a | Anderson Lake, AK | 4.9 km |
| 99667 | 4b | Hayes River, AK | 32.3 km |
| 99674 | 4b | Sutton 1 W, AK | 46.7 km |
| 99676 | 4b | Talkeetna AP, AK | 37.6 km |
| 99683 | 4b | Talkeetna AP, AK | 19.3 km |
| 99688 | 3b | Willow West, AK | 27.5 km |
| 99694 | 4a | Whites Crossing, AK | 12.9 km |
| 99729 | 4a | Mckinley Park, AK | 72.1 km |
ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.
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What survives my winter?
Runs on the hardiness zone, so it answers for all of Anchorage, AK at once — zone across 74 perennial fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs.
- When do I start my seeds?
Dates every spring job from your own last freeze — sow indoors, set out, direct sow.
- When do I sow the next round?
How often each crop is worth re-sowing, and when the next sowing is due.
- What can I still plant?
Counts the growing days left before your first fall freeze, crop by crop.
Other places to compare
Gardening in Alaska — zones 1a– 8b covers the whole state: how its 245 ZIP codes divide between 16 hardiness zones, and the freeze dates across every NOAA station in it.
Other metro areas in AK:
- Fairbanks-College, AK Zones 2a, 2b, 3b
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Trunk wrapZone 3b is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
- Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
- MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 3b, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station whose normals cover a ZIP code in this metro. Nothing here is estimated, and no station stands in for another.
This page names no single station on purpose. Picking one to represent a metro sounds reasonable and is not: the station serving the most ZIP codes is an artifact of where ZIP centroids happen to fall, and it selects a lock on the Monongahela for Pittsburgh and a far southern suburb for Chicago. A range across every station is true; a single cited date for a whole metro is not.