Regional guide

Alaska Short-Season Vegetable Garden

An Alaska short-season guide for frost timing, cold soils, wind exposure, plastic mulch, transplants, direct seeding, and quick cool-season rows.

Climate signals

• UAF Cooperative Extension recommends a sunny, southerly exposure for Alaska vegetable gardens when possible.
• A 4- to 6-foot windbreak can improve productivity where a garden is exposed to prevailing wind.
• Coastal areas such as Bristol Bay, the Kenai Peninsula, and Anchorage can have moderated summer temperatures, low soil temperatures, and inadequate rainfall.
• Interior Alaska, including the Tanana and Matanuska Valleys, can be dry in spring and early summer even when soils are warm.
• At high altitudes and north of the Yukon, growing through clear plastic mulch or plastic film may be necessary to mature garden crops.

Planning notes

• Use average last killing frost dates to count back transplant starts; UAF gives cabbage as a six-week example when the last killing frost is June 1.
• Direct-seed listed crops up to two weeks before the last killing frost where local conditions allow, including beans, peas, beets, carrots, radishes, kale, spinach, lettuce, turnips, zucchini, and corn under plastic.
• Plant cole crops in the frost-prone low part of the garden, but keep beans and other warm-weather crops on the highest, best-drained ground.
• Plan short radish and lettuce rows every two weeks from June to August instead of one large planting.
• Use clear plastic mulch to warm soil and conserve moisture, especially where coastal soils stay cool or Interior spring weather is dry.

Catalog crop examples

These catalog entries match crops covered by the regional timing source; variety-specific details remain tied to each seed entry's own source.

• Provider Bush Bean Vegetable · Warm · 50 days
• Detroit Dark Red Beet Vegetable · Cool · 58 days
• Waltham 29 Broccoli Vegetable · Cool · 74 days
• Golden Acre Cabbage Vegetable · Cool · 64 days
• Danvers 126 Carrot Vegetable · Shoulder · 70 days
• Golden Bantam Sweet Corn Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
• Lacinato Kale Vegetable · Cool · 60 days
• Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
• Sugar Snap Pea Vegetable · Cool · 62 days
• French Breakfast Radish Vegetable · Cool · 28 days
• Bloomsdale Spinach Vegetable · Cool · 42 days
• Purple Top White Globe Turnip Vegetable · Cool · 55 days

Related regional guides

• Upper Midwest Short-Season Garden A frost-aware guide for northern gardeners who need quick cool-season starts, protected warm-season transplants, and reliable fall repeats.
• Maine Coastal and Northern Vegetable Garden A UMaine planting-window guide for central Maine dates, coastal and northern timing shifts, spring greens, warm transplants, and fall rows.
• North Dakota Small-Space Frost Vegetable Garden NDSU small-space vegetable guide for North Dakota frost timing, easy crops, containers, watering, close rows, and succession planting.

Source: UAF Cooperative Extension 16 Easy Steps to Gardening in Alaska