your gardening zones and plant hardiness
for each zone is very
important to growing success because your planting zones are based on
average first and last frost date of a given area.
Once the dangers of
frost have passed in your area, then it is time to plant.
the planting zone map to determine which zone you live in and
look for plants that will grow only in that gardening zone.
you visit your nursery, or order online, a variety marked "Zones
example, should grow and thrive in zones
3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8
you will also see that in some states, there can be more than 2
4 garden zones! Zones 3,
you live in the British Isles,
your garden zone will be mostly zone 8,
except for London which is zone
which is zone 7
and the western and southern coastlines
which are both zone 9.
you live in Canada, there are
gardening zones, the
harshest being 0 and the mildest is
what do these numbers mean exactly?
basically it shows the temperatures of the country where red is the
warmest regions and blue is the coldest.
this still doesn't
really tell us what the average temperatures are for each planting
This is why, when you buy plants for your particular garden zone it may
turn out that these plants don't do very well because the climate is
not quite right for it to thrive.
addition, in your own gardens, the surrounding buildings and trees can
actually create a microclimate in your garden where you might be able
to grow some plants that aren't usually grown in your area.
I have planted
in my garden just 4 feet apart - same plants,
same preparation, but one lot had more shade than the other, and the
growth of each set of plants was woefully different.