Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Getting In the Zone

After we know how much of what vegetable we want to plant, it’s time to decide on varieties.  Our main considerations are the colder weather & shorter growing season we have here.  In order to help farmers and gardeners plant the right varieties for their climates, the USDA publishes a Plant Hardiness Zone map that identifies 11 separate zones, based on their average annual minimum temperature.  Here in Minnesota, we live in Zone 3, which is the coldest in the contiguous 48 states (shocking, we know!).  Zones 1 & 2 are in Canada, which basically means they can grow popsicles and ice cubes.  And maybe radishes.  Seed catalogs and packages will usually list which zones each variety is suited for, and the number of days to maturity.
What we want to know is, who names these varieties?  This year we’re planting Georgia Jet sweet potatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes and Oregon Giant snow peas, which (ironically) grow well in Minnesota.  Snow Crown cauliflower, Early Frosty peas and Northern Lights swiss chard (with its bright pink & yellow stems) make a little more sense up here.  Hopefully, we’ll have a nice long season of Bloomsdale Long-Standing spinach, and nice straight rows of Arrow peas.  We’ll be watching our Packman broccoli to make sure it doesn’t turn yellow and eat up a dotted line of radishes to protect itself from ghosts.  The Celebrity tomatoes might or might not draw paparazzi to our front door.  And do you suppose we’re allowed to eat the Homemade Pickles cucumbers raw, or would we get cited for “Failure to Pickle”?