Anchorage gives you roughly a hundred frost-free days and, at midsummer, close to nineteen hours of daylight. Plants grow astonishingly fast in a very short window, which is why Alaskan gardens can look remarkable in July. The constraints are equally distinctive: everything must survive a long hard winter, and moose will browse whatever you plant. This page lists landscapers serving Anchorage.
What Anchorage landscapers handle
Short-season design built around a compressed but intense growing window.
Cold-hardy planting, using a genuinely narrow palette of material that survives here.
Moose-resistant plant selection, a real and constant design input.
Snow management and snow-load-tolerant planting.
Hardscape — patios, walls, walkways — built for severe frost heave.
Licensing in Alaska
Alaska licenses landscaping businesses as specialty contractors through the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development. The specialty contractor licence covers work including planting grass, bushes, trees and ornamental plants.
Ask for the licence number and verify it with the state. Confirm general liability and workers’ compensation directly as well — in a market with a lot of seasonal and informal operators, that distinction matters.
What’s specific to Anchorage
Moose are a design constraint, not a novelty. Moose move through Anchorage neighbourhoods routinely, particularly in winter when they come down out of the hills, and they browse ornamental plantings heavily. A newly planted landscape can be stripped in a night.
Practical responses that experienced local landscapers use:
- Plant selection matters most. Some species are browsed heavily — many ornamental trees and shrubs — while others are largely left alone. This knowledge is genuinely local
- Protection through the first winters with fencing or wrapping, particularly for young trees
- Placement, keeping the most vulnerable material closer to the house and in less-travelled parts of the yard
Ask any prospective landscaper which plants moose leave alone in your neighbourhood. Anyone who has worked here has strong opinions, and anyone who hasn’t will plant you an expensive meal.
The season is genuinely short. Roughly a hundred frost-free days means:
- Spring planting is preferred. Autumn planting risks material going into winter without established roots
- Everything happens at once. Contractors are overwhelmed in the brief window, so booking early matters more than in most markets
- Nursery stock availability is limited and seasonal. Plan ahead rather than expecting to buy on impulse in August
Extraordinary summer daylight. Nineteen-hour days drive rapid growth, and vegetables and annuals achieve sizes that surprise visitors. It also means plants photosynthesise nearly around the clock, which partly compensates for the short calendar.
Zone 4b–5a, and hard winter. The plant palette is narrow and unforgiving. Material rated for zone 6 will not survive, regardless of what a mainland catalogue claims. Ask what hardiness zone a contractor designs to — anyone answering above zone 5 is about to cost you money.
Frost heave. Deep seasonal frost lifts and moves anything not properly founded. Hardscape needs adequate base depth and drainage, or paving will be out of level within a few winters. Posts, walls and steps all need footings below frost depth. This is the single most common hardscape failure here, and base preparation is exactly where cheap bids cut corners.
Snow load. Heavy accumulation flattens shrubs and splits upright evergreens unless properly sited. Roof discharge concentrates snow onto whatever is planted below, and plow throw destroys anything at the edge of a drive. Where snow gets stored should be a design decision made before planting, not discovered afterwards.
Soils vary, and drainage matters. Anchorage sits on glacial deposits with substantial variation — silt, gravel, and areas of poorly draining ground. Where drainage is poor, saturated soil freezing and thawing is hard on roots. Percolation testing before planting trees is worthwhile.
Break-up season. Spring thaw brings mud, meltwater and drainage problems, and it’s when winter damage becomes visible. Directing meltwater away from foundations and beds is a real design consideration.
Pricing expectations
Typical US ranges for 2026 are listed on the homepage.
Treat these Lower 48 figures as a floor. Alaska’s shipping costs on materials and plants, higher labour costs, and a compressed working season all push real pricing above them. Locally grown nursery stock is both better adapted and cheaper than shipped material.
One structural difference worth noting: maintenance contracts are seasonal here, not annual. A five-to-six-month service season is normal, and many companies switch to snow removal for the rest of the year.
Neighborhoods served
Landscapers listed here work across Anchorage, including South Addition, Turnagain, Spenard, Rogers Park, Sand Lake, Bayshore, Hillside, Muldoon, Government Hill and Eagle River.
Most also serve surrounding communities — Chugiak, Girdwood, Palmer and Wasilla.
How this directory helps
Every landscaper here is listed with business name, address and phone so you can verify them yourself.
Three questions sort Anchorage contractors. Ask what hardiness zone they design to — the answer should be 4b or 5a, and anything higher means plants that die the first winter. Ask which plants moose leave alone in your area. And on any hardscape, ask about footing depth relative to frost, because that’s what determines whether it’s level in five years.