The second thing to consider before planting your garden is to understand what zone you are in. "The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones and further divided into 5-degree F half-zones." (https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/) offers and interactive map where you can enter your city and state or zip code to find out which zone you are in. This gives you a guide when selecting plants to order. All websites that sell plants and seeds should have them divided by zone, or the option to sort by zone.
While we love the variety of heirloom seeds from Baker Seeds, their online catalog is not searchable by zones. Instead, they opt to list their seeds alphabetically. Even when following links to "how to grow" they still fail to list which zones seeds are best suited for. In frequently, they will list "Ideal Temperature" making seed or plant selection that much more challenging and can be costly to the new gardener.
Ironically, we do suggest looking at the seeds offered at big box garden centers. More frequently, they will ship only seeds for that temperate zone to be placed on their displays. If still in doubt, visit your local gardening retail center. It is a "best business practice" to only offer plants and seeds that will grow in your region as many do offer a limited guarantee on their plants surviving x amount of time. Plant Nursery Farm of Bandera County, Texas is one such company that excels not only in offering plants that are meant for our region, but also specializes in native species. Their staff is highly knowledgeable in what grows best in our frequently hot summers and in what soil conditions.
Make friends with your local Agriculture Extension office! They have the low down that specializes from the small gardener to the ranchers in your location. They can also direct you to their nearest Master Gardener Certifying agency. They are a free resource with more information than you thought you could ever want to know about growing your own food.
Stay tuned to our next installment as we dig into the basics of soil composition and plant nutrition.
Comments