2 Important Things To Know For A Successful Garden

You’ve probably ran into terms like “growing zone” and “growing season” when deciding which plants to add to your garden. Both of these are extremely helpful to know, but what exactly do they mean? And more importantly – what impact does your growing zone and growing season have on plant performance in your garden?

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Lily bulbs poking up through through the snow in my front garden bed.

What Is A Growing Zone?

You have likely heard of a growing zone and may even know what zone your garden is but not many people truly know exactly what this means.

In short, your growing zone only really tells you your average coldest winter temperature. For example – I live in a zone 4 and during our average winter our lowest temp is -30°F. This is really important to know, especially when picking out perennial plants that need to be able to withstand your winter lows. So if a plant is rated zone 5-9 it can only tolerate temperatures as low as -20°F and will likely not survive the winter in my garden.

Here is a map showing general growing zones throughout the US. You can also Google your zip code to find out your zone.

However this is certainly not a complete picture of your garden climate. A gardener living on the coast of Oregon can be in a zone 8 and so can a person living in the Arizona desert. Both areas will have the same average winter low temperature but pretty much everything else will be different. This is why something what performs wonderfully in a friends garden, even if it’s the same growing zone, can be a total dud in your garden.

So what does that mean for you in your garden? Well it depends on what type of plant you’re working with. For annuals, your garden zone doesn’t really matter as you won’t be overwintering that plant. But for perennials, trees, shrubs and any long term plants your growing zone should be one of the things you consider. Moisture requirements, soil preference, and sun requirements are also crucial. The nice thing is most of this information is usually right on the tag of any plant you would purchase.

What Is A Growing Season?

A growing season is not something I hear many people talking about but since I have a relatively short one, it’s something I am always thinking about. Your growing season is the amount of frost free days you have in a year. My last spring frost is around May 14th and my first fall frost is around September 21st so my growing season is ~130 days. Don’t know your growing season? Here is my favorite place to check.

I use this information the most when planning my vegetable garden. Some crops like cabbage, beets and peas may not mind a little frost but tender plants such as tomatoes, peppers and squash cannot tolerate it.

A tomato plant I started indoors under a grow light.

When I pick my squash and melon seeds I always look for the shortest “days to maturity”. No matter how beautiful, if a melon or squash variety take 100 days just to produce 1 mature fruit under ideal circumstance I know it won’t produce very much for me before the fall frosts kill it.

If you live somewhere like Austin, Texas with a frost free growing season of 293 days, your options will be much different.

If you have short season like me and want to make the most of it check out my post on 7 Simple Ways To Harvest Fresh Produce FASTER.

Conclusion

So if you are picking out annuals, whether flowers or veggies, knowing how long your growing season is will be very helpful. If you live somewhere with a short season you’ll want to choose faster maturing varieties. And if you live somewhere with a long growing reason you can use this to plan succession crops for multiple harvests or blooms.

When choosing perennials you’ll need to know if they can survive your winters so knowing your growing zone will be crucial!

My first year gardening I honestly just picked out whatever looked pretty because I didn’t really know how to judge whether a plant would do well in my garden. I had a few plants die over the winter and the gorgeous pumpkins I planted never produced as my season was too short.

I have absolutely zero regrets as I learned so much and really got to experiment. Don’t be afraid to try things even if you aren’t sure they’ll turn out. Each year as I learn a little bit more my garden does better and better. I hope that by sharing some of the things that helped me, I can help you too.

Did you find this helpful? Let me know in the comments! What other garden terms would you like to know more about?