Get Prepared in Your Gardening Zone
It’s important to get prepared in your gardening zone. Depending on where you are in the U.S., your gardening zone will give you an idea of when you can plant fruits, herbs and vegetables that you have on your prepper plan.
While the East may not be thinking about gardening right now due to the cold temperatures and snow they have had recently, gardening can start as early as February or as late as June, depending on what Plant Hardiness Zone you are located.
What Is Your Gardening Zone?
According to W. Atlee Burpee & Co. (Burpee),
“This USDA map divides the country into PLANT HARDINESS ZONES based on average lowest winter temperatures (see map below).”
I like their site because I can enter in Prepared to Bug In’s zip code and know exactly when I can start my planting of my seeds.
Do You Have These On Your Gardening Zone Planner?
***Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make purchases using them. Please see our affiliate disclosure.***
If you are a first-time gardener, you probably don’t have any idea what you will need to include on your To Do list for your gardening zone planner. Here is a short list to get you started. Be watching our website for more articles in the future.
Being a newbie, you may want to check the below site for lots of information, videos tools, and more:
(affiliate link)
1. Choose what you are going to have in your garden. Are you going to have vegetables? Maybe you are going to have fruit. Still yet, maybe you are going to have herbs. OR, maybe you are going to have all three?
2. Where are you going to have your garden? You’ll want to have your garden where your plants can get sun. Many of the plants need a full six hours of sun, depending on where you live. (No, we do not let our plants have 6 hours of Arizona sun in the summer. That would be cruel and inhumane 😉
3. Choose the style of garden you want meaning are you going to have a vertical garden, a raised bed style of garden, or in the ground? Or perhaps you may want to supplement your garden with planters, pots or hanging baskets.
4. Prepare your soil. Get rid of all the weeds and grasses that will try to take over your plants so they don’t get the nutrients they need. You can have your soil tested to see if you need to add soil additives. The reason you will want to do this is so you can learn if you need to add minerals and pH amendments to your soil so your plants will have the best start possible. Don’t forget to till the ground (turn the soil using a shovel or a rotary tiller). You want the roots on your plants to be able to spread so you want the soil loose. Also, get rid of any large roots, rocks or other debris.
5. Planting – Ah, this and harvesting give me the most enjoyment. When Prepare to Bug In first started our garden, we started it with plants that had already been started at our local Home Depot. But, you can also start from seeds.
We buy many of our seeds from Burpee. Why you might ask? My strongest reason for doing so is that their seeds are non-GMO. Here’s what they say on their position,
“Burpee takes great pride and care in supplying safe seeds to our customers. All seeds sold under the Burpee name are never chemically treated, making them well-suited for sustainable gardens. None of Burpee’s seed varieties are GMO. In fact, we’ve never sold GMO seed and have no intention of selling GMO seed in the future.”
GMO stands for Genetically Modified Organism. A GMO is a living organism whose genetic material has been changed by artificial methods in a laboratory through genetic engineering, or GE. This relatively new science creates unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacteria and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.”
There are several reasons that using GMOs are not considered to be beneficial, but I will give you what I consider to be the top 3 reasons to avoid them:
• They’ve been considered to be unhealthy
• There have been side effects associated with GMOs.
• Using GMOs increases the chances of unstable combinations of plant, animal, bacteria and viral genes that do not occur in nature or through traditional crossbreeding methods.
You can check out www.responsibletechnology.org for other reasons to avoid GMOs.
6. You will want to get some tools for your gardening zone activities. There are many things you could get, but a short list would be items like shovel; spade; rake; weed cloth; cages for tomatoes, squashes, etc.; pruners and much more.
You may be able to start thinking about gardening in your gardening zone. Don’t let this opportunity slip by you. Having a garden is one way to prepare to bug in by having easy access to your own produce. Not only will you save money by not having to purchase your items from the store, but also it will give you needed food should a disaster occur. Besides – I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again. To be prepared is to survive!
