Gardens are more than tomatoes and roses. What you can grow depends on your hardiness zone, but generally, you can expect to grow an abundance.
- Vegetables
- From the tuber of potatoes to the palatable eggplant, from a fiery jalapeño to a bounty of green beans, you will have plenty of options.
- Fruits
- Not all fruits grow on trees--strawberries, physalis, and a mix of melons go great in a garden bed.
- Herbs
- Rosemary, basil, parsley, thyme, oregano, mint, lemon balm, sage. Plant a mix by the kitchen window.
- Flowers
- Beauty is worth its own growing, but many brilliant flowers double as garnishes and teas
- Planting a garden is like building a house for pollinators, soil critters, and beneficial insects.
- Cooking
- Explore your garden in your kitchen by trying seasonal recipes.
- Freezing
- If you can grow more than you eat--a task unexpectedly easy--you can freeze extra berries and greens for when you need them.
- Canning
- You can your surplus vegetables in many forms: pickles, sauces, preserves, pastes. The list goes on.
- Teas
- Steep your herbs and flowers for a homemade tea.
- Fresh
- Taste a tomato, cucumber, or bell pepper from the vine. Taste different?
Plants require differing temperatures, amounts of water, exposure to sunlight, and types of soil, among other considerations. Of all the Earth's plants, how do you know which ones will grow well in your garden?
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) offers all the information you need to know what will grow in your garden. The USDA divides the United States into 12 hardiness zones, a stack of curving stripes that tell roughly which plants will thrive where you live. You can determine your hardiness zone by simply entering your GPS on their color-coded map. (Enter your ZIP Code and the case-sensitive Captcha code, and your hardiness zone will appear beneath the ZIP Code search bar.)
Once you have determined your hardiness zone, you easily access a clear display of the fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers that thrive in your area by searching The Old Farmer's Almanac. You won't even need to search. Simply copy the link www.almanac.com/plants/hardiness/x, paste it in a new window, and replace the final x in the address with the number of your hardiness zone. (For now, you can ignore the a or b that follows your zone number.)
So, for example, entering www.almanac.com/plants/hardiness/7 will direct you to an array of the plants you can grow in your garden, offering clear pictures and growing directions for each plant you might choose to grow.
To make the plants you choose to grow the most productive, you will want to consider further details such as soil type, amount of sunlight, and the organization of your plants. To learn more about these details, click the Learn More button below for a free and simple e-book covering all the factors you should consider when planting your garden.
