What and When You Can Grow - About Gardening Zones

You may find it useful while vegetable gardening or planting herbs to investigate your area’s particular gardening zones. Serious gardeners will want to research zones when planning their flower and vegetable garden design.

Planting zones help you tailor your gardening space for the needs of a particular crop and the conditions where you live. If you know your particular zone, you can decide which kinds of plants to purchase—perennial or annual.

When gardening with perennials you will definitely want to pay attention to those plants’ garden zones. This knowledge will make all the difference in whether your plant survives to the next season. Some perennials planted in the wrong garden zone will do fine for one season but then not reappear in the next.

How to Learn Your Garden Zones

Basically, the zones information you need to know is how cold it gets in your area and the kinds of crops that will work. Some plants thrive in cold temperatures. Many plants that you purchase from a garden supply store will have a tag attached that explains that plant’s preferred zone.

Plant zones are not always hard and fast rules if they do not match exactly with where you live. You may need to experiment and use greenhouse equipment for some types of plants, or plan where in your garden space a plant would work best. Of course, some plants may work best inside, depending where you live.

You can find information on your planting zone online and at gardeners supply stores. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provides this information for free. You can also find zones online or at your library. Zone maps are usually color-coded for temperature information.

If you are experimenting and have already planted some perennials, you may have to wait until the frost and snow disappear to see if your plants begin to peep up and if they have survived the winter cold.

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