Gardening Zones

Your USDA planting zone is set by one number: the average annual minimum winter temperature where you live. To find it, enter your ZIP code on the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map and read what comes back, a number from...

Zone 13 sits at the very top of the USDA scale, and it does not behave like the rest of the country. Winter lows here average 60 to 70F, so frost never shows up and the soil never shuts down....

Zone 12 gardening runs on a clock most planting advice was never written for. Winter lows here sit around 50 to 60F, nothing freezes, and the ground stays workable in December the same way it does in June. What actually...

Zone 11 is where the frost date stops being useful. Winter lows sit around 40 to 50F, nothing freezes, and there is no last frost to count backward from, so a Zone 11 planting calendar has to be built on...

Zone 10 asks a different question than the rest of the country. Cold is not what ends your season here, heat is. Winter lows sit around 30 to 40F and a killing frost is rare, so the ground never really...

Zone 9 is where the gardening year turns upside down. Winter lows here bottom out around 20°F to 30°F, the last spring frost lands in late February, and the first fall frost usually holds off until early December, which leaves...

In Zone 8 the thing that limits you is not frost, it is summer heat. Winter lows bottom out around 10°F to 20°F, the last spring frost is usually behind you by mid to late March, and the first fall...

Winter lows of -40 to -30F and a growing season that often runs only 90 to 120 days put Zone 3 near the cold edge of what is possible in the continental United States. Gardeners here work with a narrow...

Zone 4 runs on a short clock. The last spring frost holds on well into May, the first fall frost can turn up in September, and what sits between them is only about 110 to 140 days of open ground....