Gardening blogs are a wonderful source of inspiration, education, and tips – but with frequency, I’ve found one element missing from many: where the heck they’re writing about.
Gardeners of all levels know that soil type, moisture, seasonal changes, and hardiness zones make a significant impact on what you can and how well you can grow it. In many gardening blogs, I don’t see mention of USDA hardiness zones, general locale in the world, or any other information about how the plant(s) in question may be affected by these factors.
Why does it matter?
Hardiness Zones are geographic areas divided based on their climate conditions, such as the average annual minimum temperature. They’re listed as zones 1 through 13. The ranges can vary significantly, from zone 1 – which has significant subzero temperatures (Arctic Tundra, as an example) to minimums that never drop below 15.6C (Florida and Mexico).
Likewise, soil type, moisture and even hours of sunlight are affected by geographic range.
Someone offering tips on how to grow backyard produce in the United Kingdom, where the entire country ranges only from USDA Hardiness Zones 6 to 9, may be giving bad advice to Canadians, where the USDA Hardiness Zones range from 0 to 9. Likewise, London, England is at 51.5072*N and Toronto, Canada is at 43.6532*N. This variation in longitude will impact the angle of the sun and the length of days in the prime growing season.
Photo by Rachel Krame / Flickr.com
Native Plant Impact
This issue is also significant when talking about native plants. Not being clear about location can spread misinformation about what plants are native versus cultivated, introduced, or naturalized.
In the building of the native plants database for this website, I had to frequently triple-check search results and AI-generated listings as a result of this issue. And on more than one occasion (and I’m sure plenty more to come), a naturalised species native to Asia snuck in – which could then be passed on again as improper information.
Solutions
Fortunately, it’s an easy fix. Bloggers – and I include high-end glossy magazines with online content in this – simply need to remind readers where they’re located or if their information is region-specific. Gardeners would then be able to quickly understand that specific articles or tips may not apply – or may need to be adjusted.
As an avid garden blog reader, I hope to see more of this, and I’d love to hear from any writers or readers who have encountered this issue themselves! Comment below or use the social media links to find my channels.
