When deciding what to grow in your garden, there are many things to take into consideration. A good place to start is to find your gardening zone. Often referred to in seed catalogs and plant descriptions, the USDA Hardiness Zone Map can help you determine which plants are most likely to flourish in your area.
The USDA Hardiness Zone Map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree Fahrenheit zones; each zone is 10°F warmer (or colder) in an average winter than the adjacent zone. You can find your USDA Hardiness Zone by referring to the map or by simply entering your zip code here.
Find It: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
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(Image: 1. Shutterstock, 2. USDA)
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A good reminder - areas have been rezoned recently due to climate change.
I just moved south by a zone because of that. Funny how so many people object the idea of climate change and the USDA goes right ahead and changes the plant zones.....
"Funny how so many people object the idea of climate change and the USDA goes right ahead and changes the plant zones....."
I don't really get how that's funny? People upset about climate change doesn't negate that fact that the change is happening...? Plant zones aren't based on opinion, they're based on fact. Climate zones have changed.
@ISLAND_MONKEY - guess we have a different sense of humor. Let me explain: The USDA (aka the government) acknowledges the fact that winters are getting warmer and publishes an official document (the plant zones). Meanwhile, a large part of our government (aka most of the republican party) negates the fact. You don't see the irony in that? How did the USDA get past the Ideology?
And I realized that the map was way off 10 years ago when I moved to my current house, consulted the map and it didn't match my experiences as far as plant hardiness and temperatures were concerned.
@ HHRI: is there actually still denial of climate change in the US? It's my impression that the denial is pretty much gone; that the debate has moved to natural vs. human causes.
(And I think it may have been funny if you'd said "deny climate change" instead of "object the idea"; that's where you lost me and where it just didn't make sense)
many people do still think the earth is in 'just a phase' that'll work itself out, or refuse to believe that climate change has been because of/made faster by human activity. as it driving a billion cars every day makes no difference to our fragile ozone..
anyways, wish you could have linked to canada's climate zone guide. i mean, i know there's only 34 785 000 people up here, but some of us wouldn't mind an article that gave us a hint of thought. for my fellow canadians: http://www.hgtv.ca/gardening/plantzones/
@HHRI I think it's hard to convey that joke online but I thought the same thing - in your face, deniers. The USDA quite flatly released this and if any right wingers are gardening (as opposed to forcing their servants to do it for them) I bet it ticked them off royally.
@Islandmonkey you're mostly right but you would not believe how many idiots will say "it's snowing, where's that climate change everyone's talking about?"
@Laurensjam did Canada adust thier zones too?
@Emmi
"Forcing their servants"? Really? Let's have a little respect for all sides here, even if you don't agree with them. This is not the place to argue (or name call) political parties. It's an article about gardening.
@LaurensJam
I don't live in the US either (Asia, actually), so I had similar thoughts. At least a link to where we can find the info we need would have been nice.
@EMMI - thank you, you said it better than I did :-)
And yes, there are plenty of people out there who deny climate change.
@LaurensJam - I agree with you. I grew up in Europe and never heard of a plant zone map until I moved here. Maybe this is something US American? If you buy plants native to your region, you don't have to worry about things like plant zones because they are used to the climate, rainfall, etc.