Knowing which zone you are in will help you to be successful with your garden.  Plants are rated hardy in certain areas and this helps gardeners select plants that will do well in their particular area.  What exactly is a zone and how do you find out which zone you are in?

The hardiness zones are set up by the USDA.  Basically, it breaks down how cold it gets in a particular area.  Plants are rated to how cold of an environment that they can survive in.  This serves as a guideline and will help you to prevent plants that will not thrive in your climate.

To find out what zone you are in, you can go to www.naturehills.com and enter in your zip code.  This will list your zone based on what the USDA has rated your area.  If you would like to view a map of all the zones for North America, or would like more information, visit http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html.