# Sticky  Hardiness Zones---SEED Catalog WATCHDOG



## tallpines

2004 Hardiness Zone Map
http://www.arborday.org/media/zones.cfm

1990 Hardiness Zone Map
http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html


SEED Catalog WATCHDOG
www.gardenwatchdog.com


----------



## Cyngbaeld

Here is another hardiness zone site. You can click on your state on the drop down menu and it pulls up a pdf file that you can really see the county where you live. Great for those of us with somewhat older eyes.

http://www.bhg.com/bhg/category.jht...ry/data/gardening_zone_hardiness_07032001.xml


----------



## tallpines

I can get to the site but my state won't open for me.

I have an unfortunate combination........old eyes AND old computer.


----------



## Cyngbaeld

http://images.meredith.com/bhg/pdf/gardening/hardiness/wisconsi.pdf


Maybe this will help? you do need Acrobat reader installed. My computer isn't very new either. (1999)


----------



## Evons hubby

tallpines said:


> I can get to the site but my state won't open for me.
> 
> I have an unfortunate combination........old eyes AND old computer.


I know that feeling, if my eyes were a bit better I could see to replace the weaker tubes in my computer!


----------



## MaineFarmMom

http://www.farm-garden.com/hardiness_zone_finder

Type in your zip code to get your zone.


----------



## zealot

I found some apparent hardiness-zone errors in a certain well-known nursery catalog, and wrote a letter to kindly point out the errors to them.


----------



## MaineFarmMom

http://www.farm-garden.com/marketfarmer/understanding_usda_hardiness_zones

More about the hardiness zones.


----------



## jnap31

Look up your Hardiness Zone! 

ELKINS, AR 

Your arborday.org hardiness zone: 7 
(look up another zip code) 

Thats not true! I believe I am in zone 5 and a half as I am 20 min east of elkins and the elevation is a little higher it gets down to 0 sometimes during the winter.


----------



## jnap31

I checked it out with the first site and it is accurate says I am zone 6 and coldest temps are 0-5


----------



## Windy in Kansas

The National Arbor Day Foundation has just released a new hardiness zone map after a 15 year climate study according to newspaper sources. 

Most of Kansas is now rated as zone 6 with a few spots along the southern edge in zone 7.

As state advisers declare--use caution as 15 years is not a long period when it comes to weather.


----------



## crafty2002

This is something I have asked about and never gotten an answer I thought was right.
What zone do I live in? I live center of the Va., N.C. state line. 
I have looked at charts and got anywhere from 5 to 9. I have looked at seed packets and got from 2 to 7.
I just looked at one of the sites below, where you put in the zip code and it said 7-8.
24541, which is it? 7 or 8, or 2 or 3 or 9 or whatever.
Who's chart doest everyone go by?? :shrug: 
It doesn't really matter because I think everyone knows when you can plant or not but someone is getting paid for something aren't doing right and we are paying them for no reason. :shrug:


----------



## crafty2002

MaineFarmMom said:


> http://www.farm-garden.com/marketfarmer/understanding_usda_hardiness_zones
> 
> More about the hardiness zones.


I checked out this site and it says 7-8 for my zip code. Which is it. 7 or 8?? :shrug: 

And is there another chart that shows different scales which isn't a "Hardiness Zone"

I have had seeds that showed where I live is between 5 and 9 on the back of the packets. :help: 

Confusus say I confussed. Can someone explain this mess to me? :help:



God Bless
Dennis


----------



## Cara

I'll tell you my experience, if you take it with a grain of salt. Mine says 8-9. After a few years, the way I interpret that is this, my mother (10ish miles away, same zipcode) is in zone 8. She has earlier frost and colder temperatures. I (being southwest of her, and also in a valley that leads to the coast) am in zone 9. It's all about your microclimate out here, because of the way the mountains and valleys and creeks lay. It's kind of an experiment to find out where you actually are. If a seed packet or plant says "hardy to zone 9" it's a crap shoot for me, because I'm right on the edge of 8. Depends on the winter, and also on the location of the plant in the garden or yard. Am I making any sense at all, cause it sounds rambly....but as I said, grain of salt, please!


----------



## crafty2002

Cara said:


> I'll tell you my experience, if you take it with a grain of salt. Mine says 8-9. After a few years, the way I interpret that is this, my mother (10ish miles away, same zipcode) is in zone 8. She has earlier frost and colder temperatures. I (being southwest of her, and also in a valley that leads to the coast) am in zone 9. It's all about your microclimate out here, because of the way the mountains and valleys and creeks lay. It's kind of an experiment to find out where you actually are. If a seed packet or plant says "hardy to zone 9" it's a crap shoot for me, because I'm right on the edge of 8. Depends on the winter, and also on the location of the plant in the garden or yard. Am I making any sense at all, cause it sounds rambly....but as I said, grain of salt, please!


Thanks Cara, someone finally made sense to me about that. :hobbyhors


----------



## e.alleg

Zone charts are a guide, be careful with depending in them. I am listed as zone 5 based on my zip code, reality is I am zone 4a because I live 1/2 mile above sea level. There is a 10 degree difference between the village and my house, partly due to lack of asphalt and partly due to the elevation. I suggest looking to see what is growing and more importantly what isn't growing. No peaches in my neighborhood, I planted some zone 5 hardy trees and they died, most of my roses died and some plants I bought in the city didn't make it either :Bawling: Good news is the pine trees I transplanted from the forest are doing well. In NY the Cornell cooperative extension is very helpful for gardeners, they have charts fro highest temperature zones as well as lowest temps, some plants need so many days above 80 degrees to flourish.


----------



## Alex

Below is an interactive map of Canada.

Oh Canada 

Alex


----------



## jedsmom

Yay Canada! Thanks!


----------



## Freeholder

Considering this thread has been here for three years, I'm surprised that this hasn't already been mentioned, but if you are in the West, the Sunset gardening zones are much more accurate than the USDA ones. You can find fairly detailed maps in the Sunset Western Gardening book (which is well worth having, but you should be able to find a used copy fairly inexpensively), and they also have a website. The Sunset zones take elevation and such into account, which the USDA zones don't. And the Sunset zones are designed to help gardeners decide if things will grow in their climate, not just know what the average minimum temperature is in their area.

Kathleen


----------



## Pioneerliving

This is a little more detailed information in alphabetical order by state and city to help you with how long your growing season is for your area.

http://www.pioneerliving.net/uszonemap.htm


Almost time to condition your soil and get your seeds in the ground!


----------



## Cattle&Cupcakes

I'm in 6A


----------



## Kats

http://www.arborday.org/treeinfo/zonelookup.cfm

I like the Arbor Day foundation site because it is updated for climate change. We have moved from zone 5 to zone 6. (Also, plug in your zip code for closeup look.)

Also, here is the map that shows changes from 1990 to 2006:
http://www.arborday.org/media/map_change.cfm


----------



## cfgguy

Zonal planting is complicated and its also generalised to reasonably large areas which means it can often be inaccurate, if you can work out your zone.

There can be very broad differences in one zone due to elevations as these have a big affect on temperature. This makes a big difference to timing with planting. The the zip code type search is a little deceptive as it simply groups a large number of zip codes into one big zone, so its make you think its localised, but its not very localised at all.

We have an alternative on our web site at www.cityfoodgrowers.com 
We are storing temperatures for nearly 6000 weather monitoring poiints in the USA for every state. Our site users can orient their food gardens to the neareast weather station and easily fine tune their garden bed profile for elevation and even shade profiles. Its much more localised and accurate than the zonal method. It will tell you what to plant down to the day or month on 130 common food plants.

Happy gardening

Peter


----------



## o&itw

BlueJuniperFarm said:


> Considering this thread has been here for three years, I'm surprised that this hasn't already been mentioned, but if you are in the West, the Sunset gardening zones are much more accurate than the USDA ones. You can find fairly detailed maps in the Sunset Western Gardening book (which is well worth having, but you should be able to find a used copy fairly inexpensively), and they also have a website. The Sunset zones take elevation and such into account, which the USDA zones don't. And the Sunset zones are designed to help gardeners decide if things will grow in their climate, not just know what the average minimum temperature is in their area.
> 
> Kathleen


Many years ago I worked at a nursery around Buckley Washington... one had to take a test. The study guide and the "bible" was the Sunset Western Garden Book. I have now been living back in the midwest for 30 or more years..I still have the book and it is still a great refference. I have always been dissapointed that they never made one for this area.


----------



## manygoatsnmore

Sometimes it takes some time and experimentation to really find your true zone. By all the maps, I'm a solid zone 8...but in reality, I'm more a zone 7. My frost dates are later in spring and earlier in fall than many areas only a few miles away. In fact, we were hit with frost the end of *JUNE* this year - I've never seen that before, and I've lived in this county my entire life. We have a large flat plain in this valley (500' elev), so we get the winds, and get colder/stay drier than the other side of the hill to the west of us. After living in this location for about 9 years, I'm finally adjusting to the changes from where I grew up, 10 miles to the west. Slow learner, lol!


----------



## benevolance

I think anytime you consider planting you get as much detailed info as possible and plant trees that are half a zone colder... For example... If you are in Zone 5a..treat it like it is really 4b and plant fruit and nut trees that are cold hearty to zone 4... better to do that than lose an orchard from a unusually cold winter!


----------



## jacqueg

I had a devil of a time figuring out which zone I was in - until I realized I was surrounded by experts on our local climate - the native trees growing on our land! I looked them up in plant references to find out what zones they grow in, and triangulated.


----------



## Astrid

I live in SE Alaska on Prince of Wales Island. I have seen us rated as zone 7... but how do you account for the cloudy weather and the shorter growing season? I can't remedy that with hardier plants. Any suggestions?


----------



## RenoHuskerDu

waaah. Guess I'll just use our average minimum winter temps. :bored:


----------



## ajaxlucy

Here's a link to the new 2012 USDA Hardiness Zone Ma

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/


----------



## GrannyCarol

Hah, with all the ones I checked, I come up THREE zones off of what grows here! If I listened to the sites I checked, I'd be planting zone 7 stuff, when I can safely plant zone 4, if it will tolerate drought, low humidity, lots of sun and wind and cold in the winter without much snow cover. Even the milder areas around here are NOT zone 7! 

I guess you really do need to know your area and your microclime before you make big investments!


----------



## mskrieger

Indeed, you have to be observant about your own climate, and ideally live in a place for a time before investing in permanent plantings. Microclimate can change over the course of a mile or two. We live less than a mile from Long Island Sound. The moderating influence of the water puts us in a decidedly different different climate than the folks who live north of the Merritt Parkway (a road that runs parallel to the coast but a few miles inland). They often get snow when we get rain, and the temperature difference can be 10 degrees or more!

It's also a littler cooler and breezier in the summer the closer you are to the water.

And you can also change the microclimate of your own garden yourself! If you happen to have a big rock outcrop (or build one, or a brick wall--anything that will trap heat and reflect light) and plant a garden on the south side, you can go up a half-zone. If you then slope that garden a few degrees to the south, you can catch more sunlight and heat, and go up another half zone. Or even if you don't need a zone-up but just need your plants to get a bit more light/heat for your plants, it's useful. (Eliot Coleman's book on four-season gardening talks about French gardeners doing this. I've tried it and it actually works!)


----------



## crabtree

I had an old seed catalog from 1980 that said South Carolina was all zone 8, so this is no new to some of us.


----------



## a'ightthen

crabtree said:


> I had an old seed catalog from 1980 that said South Carolina was all zone 8, so this is no new to some of us.


 Made me ponder the history .... Took a peek in a 1942 Burpee catalog and saw no mention.

Found this from the USDA that shows the 1960 ( first one published by USDA, as best I can tell), 1990 and 2012.

More history is available here.


----------

