Do you feel like you have a black thumb? Maybe you buy different types of plants, spend the time digging a hole and planting them in the ground only for them to wilt or die a few weeks later. You’re a failure, right? You have a black thumb and just aren’t cut out to have a beautiful garden. This is farthest from the truth. Anyone can have a successful garden with some knowledge. Gardening can be easy once you know the basics. Let’s start with knowing your growing zone or hardiness zone.
What is a Growing Zone
If you are unfamiliar with growing zones, they are listed on most plants and let you know the lowest temperature that the plant can sustain. I live in North Carolina, where my growing zone is a 7b. This means that I have about 8 months of growing and my low temperature for the year is around 5℉. This also means that I can plant in the winter with pansies, violas, ornamental cabbage and others.
Knowing my gardening zone also tells me that I would not be able to grow tropical flowers, like those in Florida, as they would not survive.
History
The first geographical zone map was published in 1927 by Alfred Rehder. The Arnold map was updated in 1951, 1967, and finally 1971, but eventually fell out of use.
Conclusion
The US National Arboretum in Washington is responsible for the current map, which subsequently, has been updated in 1960, 1965, 1990, 2003 and the current map in 2012 based on 1976-2005 weather data. Due to the changes in weather, two more zones were added (12 and 13). There are also changes that added “a” and “b” to a zone to better define the temperatures.
Knowing where to start is the first step. While most garden centers offer plants within your growing zone, this is not always the case. You may be picking up a plant that you think is a perennial (comes back every year) but it turns out that in your zone, it is only going to be an annual (only lasts for one year). Also, if you are outside of your growing area and see a plant that you fell in love with, it might not work in your growing zone. You might be wasting your money, and no one wants to do that!
The USDA has made it easier to find out what zone you are in. If you pop over to their website and put in your zip code, it will provide the growing zone.
Lastly, get to know plant tags. They offer so much information from the expected height of the plant to how
much sun it requires and the fertilization guidelines.
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