Growing Zone Guidelines not Hard Gardening Rules

ByJasmine

Guidelines not Hard Rules

Gardening is more than just following rules and expecting perfect results. There will be times when you’ll need to break the rules, like who says you have to make flower arrangements in a vase? What are some rules you break from time to time?

USDA Growing Zones

A gardening rule I take with a grain of salt are Growing Zones or other known as Plant Hardiness Zones. You’ll often hear people say “Oh I can’t grow that, I’m in zone 9 and that’s a Zone 7 plant,” and that is true ONLY if you were planning to overwinter plants until next season (also known as perennials) for things like trees.

Every annual plant can be grown in ALL zones. Growing zones can give us insight and dictate how long of a season we will have. Lower zones will have less weeks in a year to grow all the plants, because it gets colder faster. Whereas higher zones will have longer seasons.

Regardless, you’ll find that even within your growing zone there are always micro climates, such as a shaded area that could mimic lower zones. Experienced gardeners try our best to mimic the plants naturally growing environment using the micro climates we have around our home. Don’t let a Growing Zone stop you from trying all the plants!

Observation is Key

Developing your skill at understanding your garden takes time and many hours of observation. That’s why you’ll often see gardeners just sitting in their garden watching the plants. We’re looking for changes and if it is something we need to help fix (i.e. pest or disease). Soon you’ll develop an eye for spotting issues or finding your own tricks on how to make your garden grow more efficiently!

Happy Gardening, See you next week!

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Jasmine

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