Sunny Winter Day? Don't Trust Mother Nature or a Groundhog - Let the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map Guide You

Written by Lyn Brooks, Staff Writer

It's February 2nd, and the sun is out, shining in all it's glory. Based on the weather today, it looks like winter is coming to a fast end. Several legendary groundhogs seem to concur with Mother Nature's mood today. According to a news report by NPR, neither the infamous Punxsutawney Phil, nor Staten Island Chuck, or General Beau Lee, saw their shadow, which reportedly means that spring is only two weeks away. So, if you are like me you are probably tempted to get started digging and planting in your garden.

If you live in the upper middle to high latitudes, the following is my best gardening tip for the month of February:

Don't. Trust me, just don't. I know the dirt is calling your name, just as surely as it is mine, but don't give in to your gardening lust! Not yet.

As tempting as warm, sunny days, and elderly groundhogs may be, science is a more trustworthy guide.

While I have seen the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map be off by a couple of weeks, in general, it is a far more reliable guide than local weather trends, or animals, as to whether or not it's safe to begin sowing your favorite plants.

Many gardeners are already well acquainted with the map, which was recently updated in 2012. If not, just find your area on the map and match the color of your area with the table. If you have a broadband connection, you can interact with the map online, or simply enter your zip code to find out your zone.

Most commercial seed packets will tell you when it's safe to plant a specific fruit, vegetable, herb or flower based on your local zone. You can also look up zone and date recommendations for specific plants by conducting an online search.

My garden is located in Zone 6b. Veggie Harvest has a nice Zone 6b Garden Calendar and Graph showing what is safe to start inside and outside throughout the year for my zone. They have recommendations for the other zones as well.

There are several seeds that I will be able to start from seed soon INSIDE, to be set outside and planted later. But, for plants and seeds directly sown in the garden, there is nothing, NOTHING that is SAFE to plant outside right now.

Nothing! No matter what today's sunshine and those groundhogs say!

If the groundhogs are coincidentally correct, and it warms up a bit earlier than normal, if we are very, very lucky, it might be safe to put out a few onion sets towards the end of this month. But, other than that, N-O-T-H-I-N-G.

Unless you just happen to enjoy wasting seeds and killing plants. If you are a serial plant killer and enjoy having a black thumb, go on ahead - plant away!

If, however, you enjoy gardening because you enjoy planting things and watching them grow, keep the following facts in mind: Sunshine and Mother Nature are moody and fickle! Groundhogs lie!


Photo Credit: Flickr, Carly & Art

2016 Garden Resolutions: A New Year and New Garden!

By Lyn Brooks, Staff Writer

It's late January, and in a few short weeks it will be time to plant a new garden. Gardening is really a learning process, one that takes a lifetime to complete. My resolutions and plans for this year's garden, are, of course, based on what did and did not work in past years.

Last year, 2015, was an absolute disaster for my garden. It started with a bitterly cold freeze on February 21st that saw temperatures dip to -24 degrees below zero on the Fahrenheit scale. It then warmed up 2 days later to the lower 30's and began to snow, for days, leaving a snow total in excess of 3 feet on the ground, destroying my garage and potting shed. The temperatures dipped again, leaving the snow in place for weeks on end. 

The bitter cold and heavy snows of winter turned into a wet and cool spring, with heavy rain. This was followed by a short but hot summer and then an early and cold fall. After months of fighting with my lender and insurance company over the damages, and then dealing with all of the continued unfavorable weather, I was honestly too worn out to think about planting anything last year. The only plants that survived all of the weather phenomena of 2015 were three single plants - two were strawberries: one a Sequoia and the other an Everbearing Ozark Beauty Strawberry plant- and a lone wild raspberry vine.

Thankfully, each of my strawberry plants sent out numerous runners, and I chose the hardiest 3 or 4 from each plant and set them in the fall. So, assuming they survive the rest of this winter, I should have the beginning of a new strawberry patch in the spring. We'll see if the raspberry cane survives and sends out new shoots for this year in a few weeks as well.

After all of the devastating losses of 2015, I feel almost as though I have a blank slate for this year. So 2016 will be a year of rebuilding. 

Of course, it's not assured that even these three plants will make it through the rest of this winter, even though it seems as though spring must surely be just around the corner. So far, this winter has been bitterly cold, reaching a chilly 9 degrees many nights. We've had some deep snows as well. This past weekend we had a storm system, Winter Storm Jonas, that brought nearly two feet of snow to my area. Is it just me, or have we started seeing more precipitation since the National Weather Service started naming these winter storms?

All of the cold weather has me itching for spring, so that I can get my hands in the dirt! Like all gardeners in my zone, I hope that the groundhog cooperates and warmer weather arrives sooner rather than later. 

In either case, in about 6 weeks, I plan to make my first foray into rebuilding my garden. On or around the Ides of March, and close to my 48th birthday, I plan to set my first bulbs and seeds into the ground. I think I will begin with some easy, low maintenance, cool weather loving vegetables: peas, lettuce, radishes, onion sets, spinach, kale, turnips, beets. and maybe a few hills of potatoes. Keeping my 2016 Garden resolutions sound like a great birthday present to myself!

Once the weather warms, and I begin rebuilding my garden in earnest, I will resume a more frequent writing and posting schedule. While we wait, why not share your 2016 resolutions for your garden in the comments section below?

Photo Credit: Flickr, robinrkc