Tuesday 27 January 2015

Hardiness zones

In my 40 years being on this planet and 10 years of city gardening under my belt, I still don't understand hardiness zones.  This is mainly because I almost always plant seedlings I buy from a garden store.  I had little luck with any of the plants I tried to grow from seed Garden update in June (beets, peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes).  I assume the seeds I'm buying or that are available in Canada are good for this climate?  Do I really need to consider hardiness zones at all or is that just climate lingo for "this is how cold it may get at night so these are the only plants that will survive in your climate."  Shrugs.  Help?

Tomato seedlings and oatmeal muffins from last year.

I have one garden that is south facing and one that is on the west side of the house.  We had tomatoes, lettuce, kale, sunflowers, celery, spinach and green beans in that garden.  My peppers did not like it there.  We've cleared some of the trees so make more sun though and with a little better planning I may do better there this year.  The kale and lettuce flourished there but the tomatoes were just not great.  It wasn't just me, a lot of people in my area were complaining about their poor tomatoes last year.  It was too cold and wet.  I'm going to get a head start this year though on a few seedlings in March - with the help of a greenhouse set up that I'll post more about once I decide how and where I'm going to make this happen.  It's almost February so don't mind me getting excited for spring - only 3 months away!


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