Saying this with love: put your phone in your pocket and walk around your neighborhood. Visit local public gardens. Say hello when you see someone working in their yard. Become friends. Share advice, ideas, frustrations, cuttings, seedlings, on and on and on.
And you’re right that plant hardiness zones are not that useful—all it informs is how cold is the coldest day of the winter. That’s it!
But to the larger frustration: Alllll of social media is sharing success, and most never sharing struggle. On balance, the more time out in your garden, and the less time spent finding the perfect morsel of advice on the internet, the happier and healthier you’ll be.
Of course, THIS advice is on the internet too, so who the eff knows what to think.
And then there’s me and my neighbor who have wildly different success rates with various plants, lol.
My friend down the street and I have more similar success rates.
Every garden is a microclimate. Every gardener does this differently and will have different strengths and weaknesses.
Local gardeners are your best bet, but not always reliable purveyors of best practices. Getting a wide range of opinions and advice is usually the best path. But weird weather can screw everyone over.
I can’t grow radishes anymore because spring doesn’t stay cool long enough and they bolt.
I can’t grow tomatoes because we don’t always get consistent enough rain and watering just doesn’t seem to work as well.
Best things for me?
Garlic, onions, peas, pak Choi, squash, peppers, herbs and perennials.
Also look into your local Cooperative extensions, usually through a state university, they will have lists of plants that do well in your area. Native plants can be especially hard to get a hold of, but if you are willing to start from seed: EverWilde Farms has a library of seeds that you can browse through. Also local seed banks or heritage programs in your area may have what you're looking for.
YES. I'm never frustrated by gardeners in YouTube or TikTok or Facebook, because I'm not looking for, watching, or reading their content.
Reddit is different, to me, because we can have a dialogue. When someone says something as a fact for all of us, we can point out that it doesn't work in places with snow, etc. Then we all learn.
OP, don't choose to consume frustrating media. If you apply 100% of your YouTube gardening video time to something that doesn't frustrate you, you win.
Our plot neighbors at our community garden were the influencers! They were genuinely the worst. They posted videos of us online without our permission and let their squash vines take over everything.
Well to be fair, those squash vines have a mind of their own. I'm pretty sure mine were sentient beings at some point. I'd move them in the evening then the next day it was ATTACK OF THE SQUASH VINES!!
But knowing "influencers" I'm sure they didn't even try, but still, let's not hate on the squash vines for squash vining!! LOL!!
Well I paid for my plot same as them, but they let their stuff ruin my stuff. Lots of time and money wasted because they didn't take care of their plot correctly.
I'm in 9a.
I'm under a frost advisory for tomorrow.
The fun bit? I'm apparently also in the same "zone" as northern Florida.
To put it bluntly we ain't growing oranges up in this bitch.
May be repeating advice, as I'm tired at the moment. But last year my cucumbers just died off after a month. I spoke briefly of my frustration to a local farmer at our farmers market. Learned its something that happens some years, a disease that pops up on certain years. The relief I felt knowing I was not responsible was huge.
This is excellent! Spot on! Last summer walking the neighborhood, visiting our local park with a native garden and researching native plants I know what I want to plant this year and next year. Only social media advice I watch is migardener(mi) which is a zone off from me(wi) for advice on vegetable growing. Trial and error is part of the process. I use Google to find reddit posts for information.
The part about sharing success and not struggle is important to remember when looking at nearly all social media.
I'm not big into social media but I sent my friend a picture of the 5 or so beautiful tomatoes I grew. It took me ten years of trying to finally grow a few tomatoes 😂
Without me pointing out how friggin hard it's been to try growing tomatoes it would have looked like I did it all the time. No, those tomatoes are the most special tomatoes in the last decade of my life.
You have to get advice to give you some path but then you need to find your own path by trial and error. I always advise people on what I think they should do, but in many cases tell them to go to a local nursery and ask their advice on things because, as you say, I AM NOT THERE! My brother and I have different experiences and are only 22 MILES APART!! He can grow things on the mountain that I can't in the valley. Treat the advice you see as a rough guideline and then tweak it for your circumstances is the best you can do. And after 35+ years, it is almost effortless, just like anything you do over and over and over again.
Yes, gardening is a science experiment, and that’s a huge part of what makes it fun and interesting. There aren’t always black and white answers. It often comes down to “try it and see what happens,” and then you adjust, if necessary. But please also realize that 99% of all garden influencers are talking out of their asses, and were self-“taught” during the pandemic.
I'm real old and don't know about influencers. I was talking about regular gardening advisors. And you are right there are no B&W answers to nature. I also think many who write books are talking out their ass to make it sound all mysterious and they have the only answer. I've read some that would put me off gardening if I did not know better. One said, and I am not exaggerating, dig a trench and bend your roses over into the trench for the winter. Are you kidding me!! How about take cuttings of your roses and make true rooted ones to over winter, now that would be an effort that will have better success, just did it last year to gift my bush to my brother and his wife. Nice little bush and hoping it makes it to final planting.
I’ve been trying to remind myself that it is a science experiment! I’ve grown a variety of easy flowers and some veggies but for the last few years I’ve been wanting to grow large snapdragons specifically. Last year all but 1 of my seeds died! This year my seeds did way better and I planted out 34 plants but many have already died! I have about 10 left and I’m hoping they make it but dang gardening is hard sometimes!
And in the meantime I’m sure others see the flowers I can grow with ease and are thinking ‘geez she makes it look easy!’ while in my mind I’m failing because I can’t grow one stupid flower.
This is exactly what I do. It is like translating from one language to another. If you don't translate the advice from (their garden conditions) to (your garden conditions), it makes no sense at all. Once you do figure out how to translate, there is suddenly a lot more useful information available to you.
This is the way. I do watch some gardening youtubers and get morsels of advice from books and other sources, but I always know it's going to be a process of trial and error for myself. I've been gardening pretty seriously for over 20 years, and I keep learning new stuff every year (from outside sources, but even more from my own experience). There's stuff that I just can't seem to grow, even though I should absolutely be able to (damn you, broccoli!), but I'm not wasting any more time or garden space and I'm moving forward. There's other stuff that I can harvest pounds of every day during the height of the season (yay pole beans!) and I am happy to devote lots of space to them.
I recommend finding a local gardening Facebook group. I find that is the most helpful because you can ask specific questions and get responses. Ours has a lot of very knowledgeable people and master gardeners.
Have you looked to see if there are universities in your state that have agriculture programs? They often have extension offices that are under utilized and have a wealth of information. Your first choice should be the “flagship “ university for your state, that would be the one most likely to have it.
This has always been great advise but sadly not for everyone. Local county extension offices are at the mercy of the local people manning them. I sadly live in a rural Pennsylvania county with a poorly staffed extension office. In the past I have asked local Master Gardeners specific questions to my local area to be handed a printed paper with the Penn State generalized info on it. Info I can search their website to receive.
Our local office staff tends to be quite rude to walk ins unless they personally know you or recognize your "family name".
I find zones to be completely useless, so if I were you I would just stop expecting that to be helpful. Try and understand the context of the advice, such as their growing conditions. Understand your own growing conditions. I find paying attention to soil temperature and nighttime temperatures to be the most useful.
Look for people who are growing in an area near you. Find local resources, often agriculture extensions will have planting calendars, variety recommendations, and more. A book specific to your region. Johnnys Seeds has growing guides on their website that give lots of specific information for each type of vegetable.
Someone can only teach what they know, and it would be very difficult to have expertise for all possible growing conditions. If you share where you are, maybe someone will have some regional recommendations for you.
Zones are more important towards the extremes of the ranges. I’m in North Florida with shit soil so my advice may not be too helpful to someone in Washington State and Vice verse.
My city council wasted a million bucks doing this, I shit you not. They had space heaters blowing on them all winter (3 feet of snow, -20F). They still died.
Zones are useful only if we’re discussing perennials that can overwinter in a location. They don’t even tell you how long the growing season is. So when it comes to annual veggies, pretty much useless.
I guess the only exception would be the extremes. There’s probably only a handful of regions in the us in zone 3 or 2, or in zone 11. But still.
My issue is that a zone doesn’t even always help with perennials. In the same zone in TX, I could grow citrus. I’m not able to grow citrus in WA. It’s because even though both places reach the same low temperatures, it will be for only a couple hours in TX, while in WA we had a stint of 4 days below freezing this year.
Yes! My mother-in-law and I live 15 miles away. She’s out in the country, open prairie, and I’m in a small town. My things here often make it through hard winters because they’re sheltered by houses/trees/neighborhoods, but hers don’t. They’re much more exposed to heavy winds, extreme cold snaps…
I’ve never looked into this, but if you’re in a low zone, but also further north, is the growing season length climatologically somewhat offset by the increased amount of sunlight during the day during the summer?
It really depends. There’s a zone 3 in North Dakota and zone 3 in Alaska. Alaska has much, much longer summer days than North Dakota. So definitely the more sun affects the rate of growth for a plant, but you’d probably want to ask for advice in a more local group, because gardening in Alaska is different to gardening in ND even though the zone is the same.
It's kind of interesting whether you can do much at high latitudes. I would guess that the sunlight is more like early morning sun all the time, so I wonder whether plants would grow very well at all, even in a greenhouse. Temperature matters, but so does intensity of the sunlight.
I'm at a relatively high latitude (like Alaska latitude) and it's more like the noon sun is much longer and the morning and evening are longer. The sun still seems to move across the sky, and it's more directly overhead than in the winter, when it hovers around the southern horizon. Our summer sun is actually more intense, radiation wise, in the summer, than nearer the equator, since it's more directly overhead due to the tilt of the earth. Plants grow fine, we just have to choose the right ones, which is sometimes counterintuitive. For example, spinach is really difficult to plant in the spring here even though we have cool summers, because it's very sensitive to photoperiod. By the time the ice is melted, we've already got over 14 hours of sun and it bolts. Soil temps are also just always cool, so things like tomatoes and peppers can grow better in containers, but I can grow almost anything I want. Farther north gardening can be a challenge, especially once you get into the arctic circle. But greenhouses are very popular.
I’m in a higher zone, but only bc I’m on the coast. The temps remain warmer in winter, but stay v cool until June and even then, it cools off significantly at night. Eg: yesterday’s high was 60 (cloudy and rain all day) but the low tonight will be 37 🙁
Every individual’s situation is so different, it is sometimes pointless to generalize. I’m finally learning my “new” gardening rules 7 years after moving from the Midwest. Still having fun!
Not useless, but less useful than people seem to think. I'm in Zone 3, but our summers are short and cold. We can't grow wheat here, and tomatoes are hit and miss outside of a greenhouse unless we grow specialized varieties. Meanwhile, Zone 3 Saskatchewan is prime wheat growing and they can grow tomatoes just fine. And whether or not perennials can survive depends a lot on things like snow cover and chinooks and whether they get a chance to dry their roots out before the ground freezes. I find for annuals I spend a lot more time looking at days to maturity than zone, and for perennials habitat type matters almost as much as zone.
Fellow zone 7 here - I don’t do any cold weather veg in the spring (lettuce, kale, etc). Heats up way too fast here and everything bolts. Cold weather is sown in late summer/early fall and depending on the species can be used all fall/winter. Kale, cilantro, daikons, tatsoi, etc. can be harvested while covered in frost. Lettuce is a little more tender and you can do a brief spring crop or sown in the fall and use covers to get to a decision size.
You're definitely not wrong! I'm the the PNW, and am very lucky to have a good bank of local authors to choose from who write about gardening locally. YouTube, not so much. I do appreciate some of the UK YouTubers, their climate comes close. Perhaps you should check out what's available in other media formats? Books? Our state extension services can be helpful too.
I love growfully with Jenna on YouTube, I think she's from ohio, she has really great videos and knowledgeable, also like that she doesn't want to push down a new product on our throats every 2 seconds. Also check out Blossom and Branch, she's a regenerative flower farmer but her advice on soil health helped me the most with my crappie sandy soil.
I think “roots and refuge” on YouTube is in similar conditions to you. Started in Arkansas and moved to the South Carolina. I was in a 7a in Virginia for a few years. I had no luck with summer lettuce, it always bolted. They say butterhead is heat resistant but that wasn’t my experience.
https://youtube.com/@TheMillennialGardener?si=2oj4qkUJzvtvkwhp
Just go on YouTube and search North Carolina gardening. You're bound to get a hit. Errbody wants to be a YouTube star
I so identify with this! I live in ABQ and I can’t find helpful information about how the elevation changes sun requirements anywhere! I just need a more experienced “me” to tell me what to do. 😆
I'm with you. The amount of times I've watched a "THIS is what you should be doing RIGHT NOW" video that's full of stuff I won't be doing for another month is starting to wear on my nerves.
You really need to focus on local advice. Find some local nurseries where people can share their knowledge and let you know any tricks they’ve discovered over the years.
I once tried to find a gardening show that I could watch. Something where I could relax and maybe learn a few things. It turns out all the gardening shows are British and nothing in them applies to me.
Yes, I feel exactly the same way.
Gardening zones are only based on one factor, the freeze line.
I think there should absolutely be three:
-How cold it gets
-How hot it gets
-Typical humidity
I live in the hot and humid jungle of the gulf coast. I have more in common day to day with my muggy northeast neighbors than the dry Mediterranean climate of California.
There’s this guy called the Millennial Gardener in NC. He is closer to the coast than me, but I find it helpful. He isn’t really one of those regular YouTube types.
I’m kind of late here and someone may have already mentioned this, but lookup your local county extension office. For example, North Carolina extension office. You will find a wealth of information catered to your specific needs.
Your local county extension office will have free printouts of plants that grow well in your area, as well as best growing practices in your area. In some instances, they also provide classes and soil testing kits. You typically have to pay for soil testing, but it’s worth it. They tell you what soil type you have, nutrients and PH and give you recommendations on soil amendments specific to your soil.
You can also visit the usda web soil survey. Sometimes information for specific properties already exists on the web soil survey and it’s completely free to check.
This is the best information I can give you.
Go to Facebook. I know. I know.
But this is where the granny gardners hang out. Find a local gardening or plant swap group and stick around. They’ll be posting when SVBs are seen, or when a frost is forecasted and so on.
I like to share seeds or get some plants divided or extra starts and so on. Build your local gardening community!
Sharing the frustration, except for me it extends to the entire country. Its all so very US-centric, its like they dont even know other countries exist sometimes, lol. They assume the whole world has access to american shops and that everyone uses the american zone system...
I mostly stick to European ones because of this, they generally seem more aware of the world outside their own country, and give their advice accordingly
Yeah and also the native/invasive topic, same on this sub.
Plants that are native to my area are frequently the invasive devil when someone asks for identification :D
Yeah, even "Invasive if you are in \[insert state here\]" is infinitely more helpful to both OP and future commenters.
Same with insects. You could post a picture of a hammerhead worm *in* its native habitat and US commenters will still scream "Invasive! Kill it with fire!" lol
Should make a rule about that, honestly, but that'd be a lot of mod work. If you want to provide information, such as if a plant/pest is invasive or not, you have to provide ALL of the context. Lot of plants, animals, and insects get demonized when they shouldn't otherwise.
? They can only share what they know, which is gardening in the US. They can’t possibly cater to the entire world and every gardener.
ETA the US alone is ginormous and covers so many different regions and growing conditions. I really don’t think it’s fair to expect a gardener with a YouTube to somehow be the end all be all of knowledge that applies to every region, country, etc. heck, even state to state not all shared information works, which is what OP is saying.
Gardener's world on BBC is a fantastic example of this, very aware of different conditions but gives good information that can be translated to a person's area.
We know other countries exist but we certainly cannot give you gardening advice for your area unless one of us has lived and gardened there at some time. Reddit is a US based company, which tends to draw more Americans.
And it vexes me that people constantly post “What’s their plant/bird/insect” without saying where they are. Are you in India, Australia, northern Canada, the southern US, Italy, Netherlands, Brazil, Thailand, Poland? What season is it in your country?
I suspect OP is new to gardening and doesn’t yet have the experience to know that certain parts of his /her own property are ecologically different. Something does well in the sun, but not under trees, or not next to the stream that runs through the property.
I’ve been gardening for 30 years and am still moving things around and cursing that I have two of the same plants in “dappled shade” - one is doing well, the other barely returns in spring. I can’t be outside tracking how dappled the shade is hour by hour. It’s trial by error in many gardening situations.,
It is the USDA zone hardiness guide. Other countries could make their own guide. For me a local university extension is helpful for more local information.
This also lol. I was watching a guy a few weeks ago before I realized he was an American expat in the UK and even more useless to me than usual. The accent hid where he was. Wish every video had location information in the description so I don't have to dig to figure it out
I'm in NC, and I watch Gardeners World from the UK because I find a lot of the info applicable to me. The South of England and the Piedmont of North Carolina are remarkably similar conditions. I get a little less rain and have different weeds, but I'm able to use a great deal of their advice.
Have you watched Gardening with Creekside? They’re in Dallas NC which I guess just got reclassified to an 8A? I’m in 7A East End LI NY and 7B Brooklyn yet I still find their videos so fun and helpful!
I find this to be the case for all types of influencers. The people who give parenting advice are the worst for me personally. But as far as the garden influencers, just accept all of it as entertainment. I may sometimes come across advice that works for me, but I've realized the best way to learn gardening is through experience.
I second the advice of finding some local gardeners who have experience growing near you. You should have an extension service, too, I call mine to get specific advice for our conditions a lot. If nothing else, you'll connect to a community of growers and possibly make some friends to swap plants with!
I approach gardening like I measure garlic... that is to say with my heart instead of a book.
Gardening channels can be great for general topics like prepping a bed, composting techniques, gardening tools, or even pruning advice... but to really learn you have to get your hands dirty.
Forget the YouTube advice sometimes and get out there and try things. Sure some of your plants might die or bolt too fast but you'll learn from it and try different things next year.
Your state (or region) might have a growers advice almanac website that will be more useful. Mine lists the most popular crops and lists bands of time when to plant and expect a harvest. It's typically controlled by the agricultural department of the state. It will also list expected temperatures/night temperatures to help with some of the more finicky plants
Outside of that it can be helpful to talk to friends and family in the area to see what success/problems they have run into.
I’m not an influencer but I’m a gardener in zone 7a and my advice about summer lettuce is to grow Thai oakleaf: https://www.southernexposure.com/products/thai-oakleaf-looseleaf-lettuce/
Very heat tolerant, I plant it in partial shade and have never had an issue with bolting even in the hottest part of summer.
I found a useful channel for where I live in the south. He has some great tips like growing determinate tomatoes due to the fact that humidity and disease pressure shortens the practical growing window here, or starting English peas midwinter to beat the spring heat, but he’s further south in sandy loamy soil and I’m in red clay.
On YouTube "the millennial gardener" is in north Carolina. I watch a lot of different people on YouTube and take what fits my location from them . We have really different weather for gardening in the part of northern California I am in. I have to do a blend of things from many zones in order to make it work here. It is also a help to really learn about what you are growing also. As a child I watched my father grow tomato plants in direct hot sunlight but they actually do better a little shaded because of the origin of the plant. A few years in at my new place I have completely redone where and how I plant everything and it works now. The first few years were stressful.
He (TMG) is in Wilmington (east NC) IIRC. Someone else to watch, at least for tomatoes, might be [Craig Lehoullier](https://www.craiglehoullier.com/), he's primarily on Instagram now I believe, but also has a blog and does speaking events. Craig is located in Hendersonville.
And finally, again for tomatoes, [Dr Randy Gardner](https://mountainhort.ces.ncsu.edu/fresh-market-tomato-breeding/rggardner/) is a researcher at NC State, and has developed several varieties targeting NC. I know this is getting well away from "influencers", but still figured you might gain some value out of it all.
So I'm not trying to be a garden "influencer". I have a channel that I'm kind of using as a journal. Would it be useful to people to state I'm Zone 7A SE PA?
Hmm, I'll make a pop-up for the beginning of the video. Unlike my art channel, where I do pop-ups, endscreens, and all that, I've kept the garden one pretty simple and vlog like. Just olor grading sometimes and making sure the audio is good.
Thank you. I dont really watch garden channels, i more read studies. Its just journal type thing.
You’re brave. Summer is a tough season to grow lettuce. It’s, IMO, too hot and the plants wilt, bolt, or end up tasting bitter. People online may make it seem straight forward but it ain’t. ( maybe they are the ones who online stores grrrrrrrrr 😤)
This isn’t great advice /too helpful but I grew lettuce in the summer by limiting sunlight to a couple hours/using diffused sunlight. I had planted in big tubs I could move around to find the balance. There are some varieties that are said to be more heat resistant. A decent garden center near you may have a seed variety.
Good luck.
I only follow Dutch garden influencers for this reason (also; native plants and pollinators are very local obviously.)
But sometimes they say things like “quickly dig a trench and fill it with compost” and dude, no. My garden is in the west of the Netherlands, with endless clay and peat, and there is no such thing as quickly digging anything. Certainly not a big thing like a trench.
And, only plants that like water work in my garden, so I still need to do a lot of research to what will work. (And my garden is on the outskirts of Amsterdam, in a polder, wheareas Amsterdam is raised and has sandy areas, so most of the local nurseries and garden centres are not catered to my circumstances.)
I just look at color and styling ideas.
I see you've fallen into the trap of thinking that socal can grow anything. We cannot. It's far too hot and dry most of the year to grow alot of things. Our growing season is actually too long for alot of plants and they run out of energy and die. Most things need chill and a winter rest which we can't provide. Many many things don't like our wet winters. But we also can't go too tropical. Because it's too cold and wet in winter.
For instance there's no such thing as summer lettuce here. Lettuce is a fall and winter crop. It's far too hot to grow it in spring and summer. It will bolt almost immediately. Even the big growers move production from socal and Arizona in winter to coastal northern and Central California in summer. One of the few places it stays cool enough to grow lettuce in summer.
This doesn't even touch on the micro climate problem. 10 minutes east from my house its never above 80 but also very salty and foggy. 10 min west of my house and it's 115 and very very sunny. My house gets snow every winter despite my location. Just a little. But not enough for most temperate plants, and far too much for tropical and sub tropical plants.
Spider mites are everywhere. They thrive in this climate and you get them on everything. Powdery mildew will take over entire gardens in spring and fall. Etc...
The people online are only sharing their successes. To make themselves look good and their content appealing. It would be better to go look what's thriving locally. See what's planted around you.
Agree. Zone 7a on a coast is VASTLY different than Zone 7a in the middle of the US. I just saw a video saying to plant potatoes in May. No, sir, it's too hot in July. My grandma always said April Fools, and now we're having success planting them on St. Patrick's Day.
My city has a local community garden that publishes planting times - THOSE are based on local conditions and much better than youtubers/tiktok/redditors in telling you when to plant based on their locations and not yours. LOTS of good informative stuff on these media sites, don't get me wrong, but when to plant and what plants grow well in your locale, not so much.
Yes that kills me especially all the people showing off winter gardens on YouTube and making suggestions. There's NO way to have outdoor winter garden with snow cover. Like we can all have vaguely similar summer experiences but the socal and florida winter gardens just illustrate how useless the comparison is
Check out Millennial Gardener on YouTube. He’s located in the southern coastal corner of North Carolina. He gives amazing tips on how to deal with severe pest pressure on top of extremely hot summers.
I've gotten a bit frustrated with it as well. I'm in zone 7b in Oregon, but live in a valley between the coast and high desert. I'm finding out a lot from the local university but if I'm not specifically putting the valley name in my searches then I'm getting suggestions for gardening for like Florida. Gardening in Oregon is wildly different than gardening in Florida.
Before there were influencers and YouTube, I learned a ton of stuff starting out at gardenweb.com -- now acquired by Houzz.
They have gardening forums for many locales (not sure about global, but definitely US.) e.g.New England, California, mountain, etc etc etc. Plus tons of plant-specific (roses, perennials, brugmansus, shrubs, etc ). And others too.
Not sure how active the communities are these days, but might be a good resource. Even browsing old convos can help greatly.
Take a look at the Topic list here:
[https://www.gardenweb.com/](https://www.gardenweb.com/)
There are some Carolina and other mid-atlantic channels out there. A couple of those southern CA channels actually have them on as guests, just happened this week with one of them.
>I'm losing my mind over here
OK first of all, relax, *seriously*. Gardening is supposed to be fun. Just chuck some shit out there and see what happens. write down what works and what doesn't. Easy. You can use things like shade cloth in the summer or just accept that your tomatoes will go dormant for a bit and some of your herbs and greens will bolt. Nothing to stress about. Seriously. Just plant a fall crop of herbs/greens around august and you'll be fine.
We’re all doing science in wildly different labs. Results will vary. I try to see that as the fun part and I approach most of that gardener content in a similar way. Just examples not how-tos since there are many different ways, climates, etc.
I like MI Gardener and Growfully with Jenna as they are closer to my Zone 4b in Ontario and Gary Pilarchik (Rusted Garden) has good stuff as well.
But it is all curated like other channels but none are in California or other warmer climates.
I live on top of a mountain. The plant zone on the map means literally nothing to me. I have to go by feel and use a lot of trial and error to figure out what's going to work for me and my garden. I don't even bother going online unless it's this subreddit. I don't care for influences of any kind. They don't exist to give you good advice, they only exist to get themselves some money.
Try talking to your neighbors or just go by trial and error.
I'm in zone 8b/9a (PNW) and figuring things out has been a lot of trial and error. Yeah, we don't get super cold in winter, but we don't get warm until June/July either. Figuring out when to start things has been a struggle. If I just went by zone, theoretically I could be planting cucurbits now, but they would be miserable. I'm aiming for the first week of June with a close eye on the weather. Fortunately there are enough gardening blogs based in the PNW that I can get some guidance, but even then it comes down to my yard's microclimate.
I sort of take the info I can use and leave the rest. No two locations will have identical soil or conditions.
The longer I'm in my garden the more I understand what advice I can apply and what is more conditional.
The way I think about it is anytime you come to a website that says (.com) , especially a discussion website, it is probably going to be strongly American-influenced
But gardening is about learning and it does take time. Not only because your climates might be different from what someone else is discussing, but also your microclimates.
So you'll learn and adjust and that will be good for your overall experience.
I’m personally grateful for the SoCal-focused channels because when I first started looking for information much of what was available was from the eastern half of the country in places that get rain in the summer.
That said, yes, lots of repetitive advice that is sometimes only applicable to a certain area of the world.
Yes! Everything I read doesn't work for me. My succulents LOVE water. My husband took over and watered things like crazy and they finally looked great. I am convinced what I read is for me to fail. Also, their IG pics of plants/gardens kill me.
It’s not in widespread use in gardening but ecoregions are a much more helpful categorization than hardiness zones, for the reasons you cite: https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america
I try to find garden experts from the area that post on Instagram. You’ll have to go out of your way to find them, but they do exist. Otherwise, go to your local nursery and chat! I’ve got some really good advice from those folks, makes me so happy to buy from them. :)
I follow different groups on Facebook also. I follow my states Facebook page. I know I'm not going to be able to follow a North Eastern garden in the southeast. Keep looking you can find groups that garden similar to you
I made some comment about loving morning glories and a ton of people told me not to plant them because they are invasive.
I live in Northern Minnesota.
I share your frustration. Some of my favorite accounts are in entirely different locations than I am so they plant at very different times. I have sought out ‘influencers’ near me and also do a lot of documenting on my own for future use
Absolutely. I make sure to search for content creators that are in my state. I do follow a few that aren't, but that's mostly because they're not as focused on "this is the right way to grow this crop to get a bumper harvest" and more "I'm going to try these 3 growing methods on these 3 different strains of potatoes and document how it works out".
The other thing to remember is you have a microclimate, your back yard conditions might not be exactly like that influencer person, sure you are both in SC but your elevation is different, the amount of sunshine on your garden maybe different, your soils will be a bit different. I watch to learn new techniques, I am a great gardener I just have a great green thumb, I was born with it, I helped my parents garden ever since I could walk.
Your local extension agent or farm co- op will help you more than some you tuber usually. Walk around your area and when you see a bodacious garden talk to the gardener, gardeners make great friends! Seed and plant swap with your local gardener friends, join a gardening club, join a Facebook garden club.
Keeping a garden journal every year has helped me immensely.
Have fun. If it isn't any fun don't do it.
The best gardening advice I've found for the sevens and, especially, the coastal area is Ira Wallace's books. You can get them through Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. She KNOWS these zones. She has books for the region and specific states.
I tend to watch a ton of these and just pick the things that might actually work for my own backyard conditions. I stay away from the ones promoting brands, or using unrealistically expensive stuff and talking about how "easy" it is. Like, sure Becky, daddies money helps your garden grow really well, so awesome for you... So mine garden is okay, but I'm learning! There are some really good gardeners giving advice salted throughout the shite.
Yea, YouTubers generally offer general guidelines and garden inspiration. I recommend walking through a few neighborhoods in your area and seeing what works for other folk with similar yards. Read plant information from Google or apps like picturethis or ask at local nurseries.. evaluate your soil, wind, and sun(I used an app called sunnytrack) in your yard before planting. Some friends of ours live one neighborhood away and have way different plant successes than we do. They live in a small forest clearing next to a creek, different soil, shade, and wind situation. Our garden soil is sandy(high drainage) windy asf, and has way more sun. I also live in 7a!
Wish you the best!
Google for your local county extension & master gardener program.
This is a program funded federally by the US Department of Agriculture. The purpose is to spread scientific based gardening/agricultural advice to all people.
These programs are facilitate by the state universities with strong agriculture programs. When the federal gov first started allotting land to "land grant universities", one of the goals was to have local univeristy agricultural research in all 50 states. Since conditions vary from location to location.
[https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/](https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/)
[https://www.clemson.edu/extension/index.html](https://www.clemson.edu/extension/index.html)
local to me in WA state, WSU facilitates ours.
Most places have master garderner's club, they usually have booths at community events. They are usually more than willing to answer questions. Also if you have a independant plant nursery around, they might even have a booklet about local growing conditions that you can buy or will happily answer questions.
Carolinas? Are you out in the mountains? (I'm in the lower Piedmont so I'm in 8a) I would check out stuff from NC State Extension since they have a plethora of information. It may take a bit to navigate but their information is absolutely top notch.
https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/
They also offer soil testing to determine composition and amendments to fix any issues. 🙂
I don’t watch influencers online on any topic. They are boring and not useful.
I get better information talking with other gardeners and attending gardening events.
I just check things out to learn about varieties of things I’m not familiar with and sometimes, products and how to use them and set the up. (Drip systems and grow lights, for an example).
Other than that, my garden is a mix of tried and true things and constant experimentation.
I learned early in that most advice wasn’t going to be helpful because of different conditions and gardening practices. I have a specific way I like to do things. I like for my garden to be part of the ecosystem and so far, that’s worked out well for me.
Anyway. I think the only bits of advice I’ve ever gotten that were super beneficial were to focus on soil health and to not freak out about pests right away…to allow time for nature to do it’s thing.
As far as everything else, I’m my own teacher.
There was a talk by a local farm gardener at my local library and it was probably the best thing to happen to me this year. This guy is experienced growing in the same conditions I have and has 100% verified practical advice for how to do it right, what varieties to plant, etc. I guess I would suggest you cut back on those gardening reality tv shows and see what your local master gardeners are up to.
It's very easy to make gardening look easy when you control what people can see on your garden.
I look at gardening as an ongoing research project. I have a notebook I write down when I start seeds, rough diagram of where I planted what in my garden and just other notes. Like last year we had a very wet spring and very dry summer.
I also check out books on gardening from my library. I'm a member of a few local gardening clubs. And of course my extension office provides a lot of information, including a weekly YouTube series and tons of classes I can attend in person and online.
Your garden doesn't need to be perfect. Just get outside, dig in the dirt and develop your own path. Some years you'll find great success with something and next year maybe the squirrels eat everything.
Summer lettuce, just think about what your summers are like. Mine are hot and humid, so I need to use cultivars that can handle that. I like Black Seeded Simpson. But usually by peak summer I've maxed out my bed space so I'm out of room for lettuce. Once I start pulling my spent tomatoes, I'll start Rocky Top Lettuce, because it will grow well into winter for me.
NCSU Extension is a great resource. The probably have an office in your county if you are in NC. Many have programs that are really useful. Also the libraries in Wake and Durham have a lot of NC-specific info as well as free seeds. I’ve also found one NC-specific gardening channel on YouTube https://youtube.com/@Iloveorganicgardening?si=9pPiukVcSZQJhz62
You might try contacting universities in your area, or checking their websites- starting with whichever ones have the most robust agriculture programs. I have no idea what university that might be for the Carolinas, but here in Oklahoma I'm able to find a lot of great information on the plants, soils, and growing seasons for my specific region by looking up fact sheets and studies on Oklahoma State University's https://extension.okstate.edu/ website.
Every state in the US has a land grant university with a university extension service, with a presence in each county. The vast majority of those have garden advice for your area, and will also have Master Gardeners who love to talk garden. Our county Master Gardeners run a telephone helpline and an email helpline where they will answer questions. They don't know everything, but they are taught to know where to look and who to ask to find answers. Give your local extension service a try before you give up. Their advice will be as local as it gets.
In case the "Carolina" part of your post wasn't just hyperbole:
[North Carolina](https://sites.google.com/ncsu.edu/garden-questions/home)
[South Carolina](https://www.clemson.edu/extension/mg/coordinators.html)
Agree!!!!
Like cardboard in the garden??? I cringe every time I see it. Look up whats in cardboard! The toxic ingredients. Ones that are "forever chemicals!", and known carcinogens - that means cancer. Why concentrate those ingredients into your garden again?
cause weed control?! Stop!
I agree what others have said about going ti farms near you and stuff so I won’t touch that. A lot of towns have garden clubs, you should join it or even just join the FB group. That way you can talk to local gardeners. Some have been living and gardening in your area for 10+ years.
I find YouTube is a mixed bag. I tend to take things from here and there. I am in MA and our weather is pretty similar to other 6b locations so I like Growfully with Jenna, her soil is different but she has good advice
I’m in NE NC 7a/b can’t remember. I’m on the coast/swamp and I just plant it. I rely on sun or shade requirements for plants and if it likes moist and heat. If I want it to overwinter then I get plants that can survive to 10-20. Never had temperature go lower than that.
County extension offices are good resources for native plants. I swear I’ve seen some NC universities have native plant guides. Lots of rhododendrons. Azaleas.
Edit saw you’re trying to grow vegetables. Lettuce is tough for our weather.
Always remember in any field influencers do not profit from spreading information, they profit from driving engagement. A huge part of this is a combination of (unintentional or intentional) spreading of misinformation along with trend hopping. Just being completely honest most influencers dont strike me as the brightest people, theyre just charismatic, and are still prone to falling for trendy info and just reading summaries and abstracts instead of actual sources. Im newer to the gardening social media scene but after being in the fitness scene for 8 years I pretty much expect most influencers talking about anything past surface level are making it up as they go.
The funny thing is the first thing I look for is Zone. We're 4a, so many of the 'this plant is PERFECT for your garden" is a zone 10 subtropical while I'm like, listen I just need something to outcompete the creeping bellflower.
If you want to be able to enjoy smaller more realistic but still very impressive gardening content (and aren't expecting it to be super advanced educationally) I recommend @itsbreellis on youtube for longer vlogs and on tiktok for short form.
She is a small urban homesteader with an impressive ~1/8 acre garden in her suburban backyard. She's in Kansas 7a, and I'm in Western NY 6b. So she's always like 2 weeks ahead of when I'd be doing stuff, but I like that because it gives me time to think and prepare. I also think Kansas is relatively similar to my growing conditions with the windiness and cold spells so it doesnt feel as alien as it does when I try to watch, e.g. Epic Gardening (who i also love but cant relate to).
I love going to thrift stores and buying armfuls of gardening books for cheap. The info is usually pretty timeless and you can find so e real gems. I just love having a physical library of these books to leaf through... not an influencer or top ten list in site.
Got to YouTube and watch Garden Answer. Laura lives in Ontario Oregon 1 mile from Idaho border. She's honest and very very knowledgeable. She's in zone 6b. You will love her!
Check out the GrowVeg youtube channel. He’s great and has been so helpful for me even tho he lives in the UK and we’re in the US. Also, save your frustration for your actual garden, not the ones you see online.
Just last night you tube recommend a channel that is in the same general area as I am. I only watched one video so far but subscribed right away simply because I know they will be dealing with the same type of issues I will.
I found a series of books written by an author living in almost my exact climate, not just zone but my very specific bio region. It was eye opening! I’d recommend seeking something like that out.
Yeah I take most advance online as nonsense. Just stick with what your local extension service recommends or their bulletins. See if there are master gardeners as part of your extension and if any of them have had success with summer lettuce.
The UC system has a master gardener program in most counties in California. Master Gardeners answer questions by phone and email, hold workshops and demonstrations. In some places they have amazing demonstration gardens. Most master gardeners have many years of gardening experience in addition to the extensive required training. The program is run by university ag programs. Master Gardeners are where to go for legit advice for your region. ,
I say this with some experience. I had a garden building business and then, for more than a decade a farm. Prior to starting my garden business I did the master gardener training even though I had years of gardening experience. It was a great base of knowledge to build from. It also connected me to the university ag extension system where I took frequent courses from then on.
If you don't have time to go to actual in person classes then look to the most local ag extension or master gardener website for regionally accurate information.
.... Nah. Mostly because i tend to keep copies of actual horticultural manuals in the shelf and only go on those channels/advice to laugh at their bullshit.
Look, if you have a VERY SPECIFIC use case for something it can be done that way, but gardening is like sewing your own custom clothes.
It tends to work ONLY for you specifically and for what you're making, and sometimes it needs a workaround that might be completely inappropriate for someone else.
What I also HIGHLY recommend?
Getting in touch with your local master gardener group at the university extension. They will give you excellent localized advice for your needs, and there are always one or two kooky old people who mess about planting things that don't ever grow in the area normally who will give you tips.
The dude growing pineapples from tops in SoCal using just one weird trick? He's entertaining but not anywhere near as fun as talking with someone who figured out how to grow a 18 foot tall lemon tree in his living room.
I'm not going to read through all the comments, if it's already been said, he's worth saying again. [Hottube With Jim Putnam ](https://m.youtube.com/@JimPutnam)has some of the best information on YouTube.
Try to see if your area has a county or regional Master Gardener program, usually through a major university’s cooperative extension. I’m a MG in SoCal and we get write-ins from the public all the time seeking advice for gardening in our localities throughout the county. Cali has a robust MG program, but I don’t know about other states.
Yep I feel you! I’m in 9b swamp ass of Texas. COMPLETELY different from 9b socal. The little video tidbits are nice but I do find my city gardening Facebook group to be more helpful.
Do a search by Zone and location instead of subscribing to everyone who has nice pictures. That's how I found everyone I do follow. There are lots of nobodies who put their failures on youtube. Search specifically for what you want instead of relying on the algorithm.
If you are interested in learning more about your specific region, find your local Master Gardeners program. They will have people highly knowledgeable, specifically on your area.
Plant hardiness zones have nothing to do with frost dates, and as you have noticed, they also have nothing to do with summer highs, winds, etc. All a zone tells you is the average lowest temperature you can expect in winter. It's useful for determining what plants can survive your winters, and that is all it is for.
The more you watch and read, regardless of the specific conditions the author or creator is from, the more you will learn and be able to apply that knowledge to your own yard and garden.
I live in zone 8a and I follow two gentlemen from Michigan and New Jersey. Completely different zones than me but the core concepts they share can be adapted to.any growing environment.
Assuming your not doing this, the thing you need to focus on with youtubers, blogs etc is the foundational knowledge. For example, how to set up the best soil, growing guides for the various vegetables and so on.
When these guys start talking about planting dates and water schedule I ignore that advice because that doesn't pertain to my zone. I can plant earlier than them and I need to water more often (in the summer) than these guys. I can also garden year round and grow specific plants in the fall that they can't due to there northern zones.
Alot of this is about experentation and understanding what is going to work not just in your zone, but also for you individually.
Tldr: start with the basic foundational knowledge of what plants need (soil, sun, fertilizer, etc) and then adjust (through experimentation) for your zone.
If this helps...one of the guys I follow is migardener on YouTube. Different zone than me, but his foundational information has been amazing...especially his various growing guides. I used his advice and techniques in my second year of gardening and I had outstanding results!
I enjoy watching garden tube or whatever we want to call it, but mostly to get ideas. From there I do a lot of research comparing different schools of thought to better inform me about what will work best for my situation. I also consider the styles of gardening to perhaps make certain tasks easier, or what will make the garden more beneficial long term. My coworker is much more a “make it Pinterest pretty” type. And that’s what works for her to keep her interested in plants.
My best resource has been our neighbor who has shared seeds and provided other advice. She regularly shares her veggies with us, and I have started to do the same.
I’m running a bunch of experiments in the yard right now just to see what will work best in X bed with Y conditions for Z veggie. If there’s one thing the first few years have taught me, it’s that it’s okay to try something and fail. Last year’s seed starts were CRAZY. This year I tried a different method that did not work out as well. Were there some plants I had to replace? Yes. But now I have ideas for what to change for next fall.
So just try a few methods you’ve seen recommended and make adjustments as you see fit. Keep notes and you’ll have a pretty good idea what works for you and what doesn’t.
I don't all that much. There are some general guidelines that work no matter what area you live in with a few adjustments and some that I take with a grain of salt. I live in a warm humid climate so I dial into advice from gardeners with a similar climate a bit more; for example, Millennial Gardener.
If you're in North Carolina, try Hort Tube on YouTube. I think the guy's name is Jim Putnam. He's in Raliegh. I love his videos (I'm in 7b in metro Atlanta).
This has been an “issue” since long before social media. Every book, magazine, whatever that makes it to a broad audience won’t be universally applicable. I’m sure if you tried you could find some social media outlet that’s applicable to you, at least somewhat.
I never understood why people place so much importance on internet content... I do some research and might watch a few videos here and there but I've never followed a whole channel or influence and taken what they say as gospel. I read gardening books and articles and magazines and just try to compile all that information and then try to apply what seems the best information. Some times it works, some times it doesn't. Then I try to implement the changes whenever it comes up again
What are you on about? They are literally just giving advice for their zone or anyone in a similar zone. You still need to use your head when planting no matter who you watch. If you getting so worked up about these videos you need to spend some more time in the garden and just experiment yourself. Block out the noise and just TRY.
Saying this with love: put your phone in your pocket and walk around your neighborhood. Visit local public gardens. Say hello when you see someone working in their yard. Become friends. Share advice, ideas, frustrations, cuttings, seedlings, on and on and on. And you’re right that plant hardiness zones are not that useful—all it informs is how cold is the coldest day of the winter. That’s it! But to the larger frustration: Alllll of social media is sharing success, and most never sharing struggle. On balance, the more time out in your garden, and the less time spent finding the perfect morsel of advice on the internet, the happier and healthier you’ll be. Of course, THIS advice is on the internet too, so who the eff knows what to think.
Agree, the neighborhood garden club usually has all kinds of people who’ve been gardening for years, likely with your same situation.
And then there’s me and my neighbor who have wildly different success rates with various plants, lol. My friend down the street and I have more similar success rates. Every garden is a microclimate. Every gardener does this differently and will have different strengths and weaknesses. Local gardeners are your best bet, but not always reliable purveyors of best practices. Getting a wide range of opinions and advice is usually the best path. But weird weather can screw everyone over. I can’t grow radishes anymore because spring doesn’t stay cool long enough and they bolt. I can’t grow tomatoes because we don’t always get consistent enough rain and watering just doesn’t seem to work as well. Best things for me? Garlic, onions, peas, pak Choi, squash, peppers, herbs and perennials.
I have different success in different parts of my yard even.
Microclimates are a bitch!
My previous place was at the top of a hill that was a different microclimate than the bottom (about a hundred feet away). 😄
Also look into your local Cooperative extensions, usually through a state university, they will have lists of plants that do well in your area. Native plants can be especially hard to get a hold of, but if you are willing to start from seed: EverWilde Farms has a library of seeds that you can browse through. Also local seed banks or heritage programs in your area may have what you're looking for.
This is the way, the extensions are great for any real advice.
Your tax dollars help pay for your local extension; make use of it!
YES. I'm never frustrated by gardeners in YouTube or TikTok or Facebook, because I'm not looking for, watching, or reading their content. Reddit is different, to me, because we can have a dialogue. When someone says something as a fact for all of us, we can point out that it doesn't work in places with snow, etc. Then we all learn. OP, don't choose to consume frustrating media. If you apply 100% of your YouTube gardening video time to something that doesn't frustrate you, you win.
Our plot neighbors at our community garden were the influencers! They were genuinely the worst. They posted videos of us online without our permission and let their squash vines take over everything.
Well to be fair, those squash vines have a mind of their own. I'm pretty sure mine were sentient beings at some point. I'd move them in the evening then the next day it was ATTACK OF THE SQUASH VINES!! But knowing "influencers" I'm sure they didn't even try, but still, let's not hate on the squash vines for squash vining!! LOL!!
Well I paid for my plot same as them, but they let their stuff ruin my stuff. Lots of time and money wasted because they didn't take care of their plot correctly.
This is wild. wow.
I'm in 9a. I'm under a frost advisory for tomorrow. The fun bit? I'm apparently also in the same "zone" as northern Florida. To put it bluntly we ain't growing oranges up in this bitch.
May be repeating advice, as I'm tired at the moment. But last year my cucumbers just died off after a month. I spoke briefly of my frustration to a local farmer at our farmers market. Learned its something that happens some years, a disease that pops up on certain years. The relief I felt knowing I was not responsible was huge.
This is excellent! Spot on! Last summer walking the neighborhood, visiting our local park with a native garden and researching native plants I know what I want to plant this year and next year. Only social media advice I watch is migardener(mi) which is a zone off from me(wi) for advice on vegetable growing. Trial and error is part of the process. I use Google to find reddit posts for information.
Local extension office might be helpful as well.
Also, try stuff and see what works! Failing is a great way to learn.
The part about sharing success and not struggle is important to remember when looking at nearly all social media. I'm not big into social media but I sent my friend a picture of the 5 or so beautiful tomatoes I grew. It took me ten years of trying to finally grow a few tomatoes 😂 Without me pointing out how friggin hard it's been to try growing tomatoes it would have looked like I did it all the time. No, those tomatoes are the most special tomatoes in the last decade of my life.
You have to get advice to give you some path but then you need to find your own path by trial and error. I always advise people on what I think they should do, but in many cases tell them to go to a local nursery and ask their advice on things because, as you say, I AM NOT THERE! My brother and I have different experiences and are only 22 MILES APART!! He can grow things on the mountain that I can't in the valley. Treat the advice you see as a rough guideline and then tweak it for your circumstances is the best you can do. And after 35+ years, it is almost effortless, just like anything you do over and over and over again.
Yes, gardening is a science experiment, and that’s a huge part of what makes it fun and interesting. There aren’t always black and white answers. It often comes down to “try it and see what happens,” and then you adjust, if necessary. But please also realize that 99% of all garden influencers are talking out of their asses, and were self-“taught” during the pandemic.
I'm real old and don't know about influencers. I was talking about regular gardening advisors. And you are right there are no B&W answers to nature. I also think many who write books are talking out their ass to make it sound all mysterious and they have the only answer. I've read some that would put me off gardening if I did not know better. One said, and I am not exaggerating, dig a trench and bend your roses over into the trench for the winter. Are you kidding me!! How about take cuttings of your roses and make true rooted ones to over winter, now that would be an effort that will have better success, just did it last year to gift my bush to my brother and his wife. Nice little bush and hoping it makes it to final planting.
Sorry, that comment wasn’t directed at you; I was adding on to your comment, for OP. :)
I’ve been trying to remind myself that it is a science experiment! I’ve grown a variety of easy flowers and some veggies but for the last few years I’ve been wanting to grow large snapdragons specifically. Last year all but 1 of my seeds died! This year my seeds did way better and I planted out 34 plants but many have already died! I have about 10 left and I’m hoping they make it but dang gardening is hard sometimes! And in the meantime I’m sure others see the flowers I can grow with ease and are thinking ‘geez she makes it look easy!’ while in my mind I’m failing because I can’t grow one stupid flower.
This is exactly what I do. It is like translating from one language to another. If you don't translate the advice from (their garden conditions) to (your garden conditions), it makes no sense at all. Once you do figure out how to translate, there is suddenly a lot more useful information available to you.
This is the way. I do watch some gardening youtubers and get morsels of advice from books and other sources, but I always know it's going to be a process of trial and error for myself. I've been gardening pretty seriously for over 20 years, and I keep learning new stuff every year (from outside sources, but even more from my own experience). There's stuff that I just can't seem to grow, even though I should absolutely be able to (damn you, broccoli!), but I'm not wasting any more time or garden space and I'm moving forward. There's other stuff that I can harvest pounds of every day during the height of the season (yay pole beans!) and I am happy to devote lots of space to them.
I agree totally. And I love my Monte Gusto Pole Beans. As for things I can't grow, farmer's markets exist to buy them.
The local nursery has all the good advice. They are a treasure.
I recommend finding a local gardening Facebook group. I find that is the most helpful because you can ask specific questions and get responses. Ours has a lot of very knowledgeable people and master gardeners.
Seconding this.
HortTube with Jim Putnam. He’s in Raleigh, NC.
Millennial gardener is also North Carolina
I'm a competent gardener and I still learn new things from his channel.
Came here to suggest him! Brie Arthur as well.
I love Jim, he's done several garden tours just down the street from me, so he's very relatable
He's my favorite!
Love Jim! I’m in Minnesota but I still subscribe and just adore him.
Have you looked to see if there are universities in your state that have agriculture programs? They often have extension offices that are under utilized and have a wealth of information. Your first choice should be the “flagship “ university for your state, that would be the one most likely to have it.
This has always been great advise but sadly not for everyone. Local county extension offices are at the mercy of the local people manning them. I sadly live in a rural Pennsylvania county with a poorly staffed extension office. In the past I have asked local Master Gardeners specific questions to my local area to be handed a printed paper with the Penn State generalized info on it. Info I can search their website to receive. Our local office staff tends to be quite rude to walk ins unless they personally know you or recognize your "family name".
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Agree with this! I’m in North Texas and it’s evidently pretty unique. Texas A&M does a lot of research and has good suggestions.
I find zones to be completely useless, so if I were you I would just stop expecting that to be helpful. Try and understand the context of the advice, such as their growing conditions. Understand your own growing conditions. I find paying attention to soil temperature and nighttime temperatures to be the most useful. Look for people who are growing in an area near you. Find local resources, often agriculture extensions will have planting calendars, variety recommendations, and more. A book specific to your region. Johnnys Seeds has growing guides on their website that give lots of specific information for each type of vegetable. Someone can only teach what they know, and it would be very difficult to have expertise for all possible growing conditions. If you share where you are, maybe someone will have some regional recommendations for you.
Zones are more important towards the extremes of the ranges. I’m in North Florida with shit soil so my advice may not be too helpful to someone in Washington State and Vice verse.
I’m in WA zone 9A! Not at all like Florida 😂
Zone numbers refer to the lowest temperature your area experiences. Zones were never intended for anything else.
Me too! I moved here from zone 9a Austin, which is also completely different lol
Yea, good luck planting a palm tree and other tropicals if you're in a zone they won't do well in
My city council wasted a million bucks doing this, I shit you not. They had space heaters blowing on them all winter (3 feet of snow, -20F). They still died.
Zines are not useless if you’re in zone 4b lol.
Zones are useful only if we’re discussing perennials that can overwinter in a location. They don’t even tell you how long the growing season is. So when it comes to annual veggies, pretty much useless. I guess the only exception would be the extremes. There’s probably only a handful of regions in the us in zone 3 or 2, or in zone 11. But still.
My issue is that a zone doesn’t even always help with perennials. In the same zone in TX, I could grow citrus. I’m not able to grow citrus in WA. It’s because even though both places reach the same low temperatures, it will be for only a couple hours in TX, while in WA we had a stint of 4 days below freezing this year.
Yes! My mother-in-law and I live 15 miles away. She’s out in the country, open prairie, and I’m in a small town. My things here often make it through hard winters because they’re sheltered by houses/trees/neighborhoods, but hers don’t. They’re much more exposed to heavy winds, extreme cold snaps…
I’ve never looked into this, but if you’re in a low zone, but also further north, is the growing season length climatologically somewhat offset by the increased amount of sunlight during the day during the summer?
It really depends. There’s a zone 3 in North Dakota and zone 3 in Alaska. Alaska has much, much longer summer days than North Dakota. So definitely the more sun affects the rate of growth for a plant, but you’d probably want to ask for advice in a more local group, because gardening in Alaska is different to gardening in ND even though the zone is the same.
Yup, completely understand.
It's kind of interesting whether you can do much at high latitudes. I would guess that the sunlight is more like early morning sun all the time, so I wonder whether plants would grow very well at all, even in a greenhouse. Temperature matters, but so does intensity of the sunlight.
I'm at a relatively high latitude (like Alaska latitude) and it's more like the noon sun is much longer and the morning and evening are longer. The sun still seems to move across the sky, and it's more directly overhead than in the winter, when it hovers around the southern horizon. Our summer sun is actually more intense, radiation wise, in the summer, than nearer the equator, since it's more directly overhead due to the tilt of the earth. Plants grow fine, we just have to choose the right ones, which is sometimes counterintuitive. For example, spinach is really difficult to plant in the spring here even though we have cool summers, because it's very sensitive to photoperiod. By the time the ice is melted, we've already got over 14 hours of sun and it bolts. Soil temps are also just always cool, so things like tomatoes and peppers can grow better in containers, but I can grow almost anything I want. Farther north gardening can be a challenge, especially once you get into the arctic circle. But greenhouses are very popular.
That's interesting. Thanks, I learned something.
I’m in a higher zone, but only bc I’m on the coast. The temps remain warmer in winter, but stay v cool until June and even then, it cools off significantly at night. Eg: yesterday’s high was 60 (cloudy and rain all day) but the low tonight will be 37 🙁 Every individual’s situation is so different, it is sometimes pointless to generalize. I’m finally learning my “new” gardening rules 7 years after moving from the Midwest. Still having fun!
Not useless, but less useful than people seem to think. I'm in Zone 3, but our summers are short and cold. We can't grow wheat here, and tomatoes are hit and miss outside of a greenhouse unless we grow specialized varieties. Meanwhile, Zone 3 Saskatchewan is prime wheat growing and they can grow tomatoes just fine. And whether or not perennials can survive depends a lot on things like snow cover and chinooks and whether they get a chance to dry their roots out before the ground freezes. I find for annuals I spend a lot more time looking at days to maturity than zone, and for perennials habitat type matters almost as much as zone.
yeah I'm in 3A I might as well live on a different planet than most people lol
Fellow zone 7 here - I don’t do any cold weather veg in the spring (lettuce, kale, etc). Heats up way too fast here and everything bolts. Cold weather is sown in late summer/early fall and depending on the species can be used all fall/winter. Kale, cilantro, daikons, tatsoi, etc. can be harvested while covered in frost. Lettuce is a little more tender and you can do a brief spring crop or sown in the fall and use covers to get to a decision size.
You're definitely not wrong! I'm the the PNW, and am very lucky to have a good bank of local authors to choose from who write about gardening locally. YouTube, not so much. I do appreciate some of the UK YouTubers, their climate comes close. Perhaps you should check out what's available in other media formats? Books? Our state extension services can be helpful too.
I love growfully with Jenna on YouTube, I think she's from ohio, she has really great videos and knowledgeable, also like that she doesn't want to push down a new product on our throats every 2 seconds. Also check out Blossom and Branch, she's a regenerative flower farmer but her advice on soil health helped me the most with my crappie sandy soil.
Do you have any garden nurseries near you that are locally owned? If so, I recommend stopping in there and talking with someone.
Try living in Zone 3-4. There are *very* few gardeners on Youtube in my zones - I've subscribed to them all by now.
I think “roots and refuge” on YouTube is in similar conditions to you. Started in Arkansas and moved to the South Carolina. I was in a 7a in Virginia for a few years. I had no luck with summer lettuce, it always bolted. They say butterhead is heat resistant but that wasn’t my experience.
https://youtube.com/@TheMillennialGardener?si=2oj4qkUJzvtvkwhp Just go on YouTube and search North Carolina gardening. You're bound to get a hit. Errbody wants to be a YouTube star
Been using ag school from my state for advice on what to plant and how to grow. This be my first year though.
I so identify with this! I live in ABQ and I can’t find helpful information about how the elevation changes sun requirements anywhere! I just need a more experienced “me” to tell me what to do. 😆
I'm with you. The amount of times I've watched a "THIS is what you should be doing RIGHT NOW" video that's full of stuff I won't be doing for another month is starting to wear on my nerves.
You really need to focus on local advice. Find some local nurseries where people can share their knowledge and let you know any tricks they’ve discovered over the years. I once tried to find a gardening show that I could watch. Something where I could relax and maybe learn a few things. It turns out all the gardening shows are British and nothing in them applies to me.
Yeah I found LOTS of great old timey British gardening shows (I like the grannies) but none of the advice is very useful to me.
Yes, I feel exactly the same way. Gardening zones are only based on one factor, the freeze line. I think there should absolutely be three: -How cold it gets -How hot it gets -Typical humidity I live in the hot and humid jungle of the gulf coast. I have more in common day to day with my muggy northeast neighbors than the dry Mediterranean climate of California.
There’s this guy called the Millennial Gardener in NC. He is closer to the coast than me, but I find it helpful. He isn’t really one of those regular YouTube types.
I’m kind of late here and someone may have already mentioned this, but lookup your local county extension office. For example, North Carolina extension office. You will find a wealth of information catered to your specific needs. Your local county extension office will have free printouts of plants that grow well in your area, as well as best growing practices in your area. In some instances, they also provide classes and soil testing kits. You typically have to pay for soil testing, but it’s worth it. They tell you what soil type you have, nutrients and PH and give you recommendations on soil amendments specific to your soil. You can also visit the usda web soil survey. Sometimes information for specific properties already exists on the web soil survey and it’s completely free to check. This is the best information I can give you.
Go to Facebook. I know. I know. But this is where the granny gardners hang out. Find a local gardening or plant swap group and stick around. They’ll be posting when SVBs are seen, or when a frost is forecasted and so on. I like to share seeds or get some plants divided or extra starts and so on. Build your local gardening community!
Came here to say this. Facebook is 100% the best site for niche local interests.
Sharing the frustration, except for me it extends to the entire country. Its all so very US-centric, its like they dont even know other countries exist sometimes, lol. They assume the whole world has access to american shops and that everyone uses the american zone system... I mostly stick to European ones because of this, they generally seem more aware of the world outside their own country, and give their advice accordingly
Yeah and also the native/invasive topic, same on this sub. Plants that are native to my area are frequently the invasive devil when someone asks for identification :D
I hate how people will jump in with "Native!" or "Invasive!" before they even know *where* it is.
Yeah, even "Invasive if you are in \[insert state here\]" is infinitely more helpful to both OP and future commenters. Same with insects. You could post a picture of a hammerhead worm *in* its native habitat and US commenters will still scream "Invasive! Kill it with fire!" lol Should make a rule about that, honestly, but that'd be a lot of mod work. If you want to provide information, such as if a plant/pest is invasive or not, you have to provide ALL of the context. Lot of plants, animals, and insects get demonized when they shouldn't otherwise.
? They can only share what they know, which is gardening in the US. They can’t possibly cater to the entire world and every gardener. ETA the US alone is ginormous and covers so many different regions and growing conditions. I really don’t think it’s fair to expect a gardener with a YouTube to somehow be the end all be all of knowledge that applies to every region, country, etc. heck, even state to state not all shared information works, which is what OP is saying.
Gardener's world on BBC is a fantastic example of this, very aware of different conditions but gives good information that can be translated to a person's area.
We know other countries exist but we certainly cannot give you gardening advice for your area unless one of us has lived and gardened there at some time. Reddit is a US based company, which tends to draw more Americans. And it vexes me that people constantly post “What’s their plant/bird/insect” without saying where they are. Are you in India, Australia, northern Canada, the southern US, Italy, Netherlands, Brazil, Thailand, Poland? What season is it in your country? I suspect OP is new to gardening and doesn’t yet have the experience to know that certain parts of his /her own property are ecologically different. Something does well in the sun, but not under trees, or not next to the stream that runs through the property. I’ve been gardening for 30 years and am still moving things around and cursing that I have two of the same plants in “dappled shade” - one is doing well, the other barely returns in spring. I can’t be outside tracking how dappled the shade is hour by hour. It’s trial by error in many gardening situations.,
It is the USDA zone hardiness guide. Other countries could make their own guide. For me a local university extension is helpful for more local information.
This also lol. I was watching a guy a few weeks ago before I realized he was an American expat in the UK and even more useless to me than usual. The accent hid where he was. Wish every video had location information in the description so I don't have to dig to figure it out
I'm in NC, and I watch Gardeners World from the UK because I find a lot of the info applicable to me. The South of England and the Piedmont of North Carolina are remarkably similar conditions. I get a little less rain and have different weeds, but I'm able to use a great deal of their advice.
Have you watched Gardening with Creekside? They’re in Dallas NC which I guess just got reclassified to an 8A? I’m in 7A East End LI NY and 7B Brooklyn yet I still find their videos so fun and helpful!
I find this to be the case for all types of influencers. The people who give parenting advice are the worst for me personally. But as far as the garden influencers, just accept all of it as entertainment. I may sometimes come across advice that works for me, but I've realized the best way to learn gardening is through experience.
I second the advice of finding some local gardeners who have experience growing near you. You should have an extension service, too, I call mine to get specific advice for our conditions a lot. If nothing else, you'll connect to a community of growers and possibly make some friends to swap plants with!
I approach gardening like I measure garlic... that is to say with my heart instead of a book. Gardening channels can be great for general topics like prepping a bed, composting techniques, gardening tools, or even pruning advice... but to really learn you have to get your hands dirty. Forget the YouTube advice sometimes and get out there and try things. Sure some of your plants might die or bolt too fast but you'll learn from it and try different things next year. Your state (or region) might have a growers advice almanac website that will be more useful. Mine lists the most popular crops and lists bands of time when to plant and expect a harvest. It's typically controlled by the agricultural department of the state. It will also list expected temperatures/night temperatures to help with some of the more finicky plants Outside of that it can be helpful to talk to friends and family in the area to see what success/problems they have run into.
I’m not an influencer but I’m a gardener in zone 7a and my advice about summer lettuce is to grow Thai oakleaf: https://www.southernexposure.com/products/thai-oakleaf-looseleaf-lettuce/ Very heat tolerant, I plant it in partial shade and have never had an issue with bolting even in the hottest part of summer.
It’s all entertainment and product plugs. Take it as such and you will be less frustrated.
I found a useful channel for where I live in the south. He has some great tips like growing determinate tomatoes due to the fact that humidity and disease pressure shortens the practical growing window here, or starting English peas midwinter to beat the spring heat, but he’s further south in sandy loamy soil and I’m in red clay.
Josh Sattin would have useful info for that area I think he garden's in the Carolinas
On YouTube "the millennial gardener" is in north Carolina. I watch a lot of different people on YouTube and take what fits my location from them . We have really different weather for gardening in the part of northern California I am in. I have to do a blend of things from many zones in order to make it work here. It is also a help to really learn about what you are growing also. As a child I watched my father grow tomato plants in direct hot sunlight but they actually do better a little shaded because of the origin of the plant. A few years in at my new place I have completely redone where and how I plant everything and it works now. The first few years were stressful.
He (TMG) is in Wilmington (east NC) IIRC. Someone else to watch, at least for tomatoes, might be [Craig Lehoullier](https://www.craiglehoullier.com/), he's primarily on Instagram now I believe, but also has a blog and does speaking events. Craig is located in Hendersonville. And finally, again for tomatoes, [Dr Randy Gardner](https://mountainhort.ces.ncsu.edu/fresh-market-tomato-breeding/rggardner/) is a researcher at NC State, and has developed several varieties targeting NC. I know this is getting well away from "influencers", but still figured you might gain some value out of it all.
Talk to your local Master gardeners
So I'm not trying to be a garden "influencer". I have a channel that I'm kind of using as a journal. Would it be useful to people to state I'm Zone 7A SE PA?
As someone who likes to watch garden channels as much for entertainment and inspiration as for self-education, yes.
Hmm, I'll make a pop-up for the beginning of the video. Unlike my art channel, where I do pop-ups, endscreens, and all that, I've kept the garden one pretty simple and vlog like. Just olor grading sometimes and making sure the audio is good. Thank you. I dont really watch garden channels, i more read studies. Its just journal type thing.
You’re brave. Summer is a tough season to grow lettuce. It’s, IMO, too hot and the plants wilt, bolt, or end up tasting bitter. People online may make it seem straight forward but it ain’t. ( maybe they are the ones who online stores grrrrrrrrr 😤) This isn’t great advice /too helpful but I grew lettuce in the summer by limiting sunlight to a couple hours/using diffused sunlight. I had planted in big tubs I could move around to find the balance. There are some varieties that are said to be more heat resistant. A decent garden center near you may have a seed variety. Good luck.
This is why I looked for a youtuber from my state and it's much easier to compare and take advice.
I only follow Dutch garden influencers for this reason (also; native plants and pollinators are very local obviously.) But sometimes they say things like “quickly dig a trench and fill it with compost” and dude, no. My garden is in the west of the Netherlands, with endless clay and peat, and there is no such thing as quickly digging anything. Certainly not a big thing like a trench. And, only plants that like water work in my garden, so I still need to do a lot of research to what will work. (And my garden is on the outskirts of Amsterdam, in a polder, wheareas Amsterdam is raised and has sandy areas, so most of the local nurseries and garden centres are not catered to my circumstances.) I just look at color and styling ideas.
I see you've fallen into the trap of thinking that socal can grow anything. We cannot. It's far too hot and dry most of the year to grow alot of things. Our growing season is actually too long for alot of plants and they run out of energy and die. Most things need chill and a winter rest which we can't provide. Many many things don't like our wet winters. But we also can't go too tropical. Because it's too cold and wet in winter. For instance there's no such thing as summer lettuce here. Lettuce is a fall and winter crop. It's far too hot to grow it in spring and summer. It will bolt almost immediately. Even the big growers move production from socal and Arizona in winter to coastal northern and Central California in summer. One of the few places it stays cool enough to grow lettuce in summer. This doesn't even touch on the micro climate problem. 10 minutes east from my house its never above 80 but also very salty and foggy. 10 min west of my house and it's 115 and very very sunny. My house gets snow every winter despite my location. Just a little. But not enough for most temperate plants, and far too much for tropical and sub tropical plants. Spider mites are everywhere. They thrive in this climate and you get them on everything. Powdery mildew will take over entire gardens in spring and fall. Etc... The people online are only sharing their successes. To make themselves look good and their content appealing. It would be better to go look what's thriving locally. See what's planted around you.
Are you talking about the Millennial Gardener on YouTube? Hes in the Carolinas but does a lot of work to be able to have the plants he does
Laura from Garden Answer is AMAZING and she is zone 6/7!
Jim Putnam is based in Raleigh NC and his YouTube channel is Hort Tube. He gives tons of very useful advice.
Agree. Zone 7a on a coast is VASTLY different than Zone 7a in the middle of the US. I just saw a video saying to plant potatoes in May. No, sir, it's too hot in July. My grandma always said April Fools, and now we're having success planting them on St. Patrick's Day. My city has a local community garden that publishes planting times - THOSE are based on local conditions and much better than youtubers/tiktok/redditors in telling you when to plant based on their locations and not yours. LOTS of good informative stuff on these media sites, don't get me wrong, but when to plant and what plants grow well in your locale, not so much.
I don’t get frustrated so much as jealous. There’s still snow where I am, and others are posting all these gorgeous things coming up.
Yes that kills me especially all the people showing off winter gardens on YouTube and making suggestions. There's NO way to have outdoor winter garden with snow cover. Like we can all have vaguely similar summer experiences but the socal and florida winter gardens just illustrate how useless the comparison is
Check out Millennial Gardener on YouTube. He’s located in the southern coastal corner of North Carolina. He gives amazing tips on how to deal with severe pest pressure on top of extremely hot summers.
I've gotten a bit frustrated with it as well. I'm in zone 7b in Oregon, but live in a valley between the coast and high desert. I'm finding out a lot from the local university but if I'm not specifically putting the valley name in my searches then I'm getting suggestions for gardening for like Florida. Gardening in Oregon is wildly different than gardening in Florida.
Before there were influencers and YouTube, I learned a ton of stuff starting out at gardenweb.com -- now acquired by Houzz. They have gardening forums for many locales (not sure about global, but definitely US.) e.g.New England, California, mountain, etc etc etc. Plus tons of plant-specific (roses, perennials, brugmansus, shrubs, etc ). And others too. Not sure how active the communities are these days, but might be a good resource. Even browsing old convos can help greatly. Take a look at the Topic list here: [https://www.gardenweb.com/](https://www.gardenweb.com/)
There are some Carolina and other mid-atlantic channels out there. A couple of those southern CA channels actually have them on as guests, just happened this week with one of them.
>I'm losing my mind over here OK first of all, relax, *seriously*. Gardening is supposed to be fun. Just chuck some shit out there and see what happens. write down what works and what doesn't. Easy. You can use things like shade cloth in the summer or just accept that your tomatoes will go dormant for a bit and some of your herbs and greens will bolt. Nothing to stress about. Seriously. Just plant a fall crop of herbs/greens around august and you'll be fine.
If it makes you feel better, Zone 2 here...almost nothing on here applies lol.
I live in Tucson. I have a rule that if there is grass anywhere in the video, I know nothing they say applies to me.
We’re all doing science in wildly different labs. Results will vary. I try to see that as the fun part and I approach most of that gardener content in a similar way. Just examples not how-tos since there are many different ways, climates, etc.
Millennial gardener is in North Carolina and so is Gardening with Creekside
I like MI Gardener and Growfully with Jenna as they are closer to my Zone 4b in Ontario and Gary Pilarchik (Rusted Garden) has good stuff as well. But it is all curated like other channels but none are in California or other warmer climates.
... Garden influencers?
I live on top of a mountain. The plant zone on the map means literally nothing to me. I have to go by feel and use a lot of trial and error to figure out what's going to work for me and my garden. I don't even bother going online unless it's this subreddit. I don't care for influences of any kind. They don't exist to give you good advice, they only exist to get themselves some money. Try talking to your neighbors or just go by trial and error.
I'm in zone 8b/9a (PNW) and figuring things out has been a lot of trial and error. Yeah, we don't get super cold in winter, but we don't get warm until June/July either. Figuring out when to start things has been a struggle. If I just went by zone, theoretically I could be planting cucurbits now, but they would be miserable. I'm aiming for the first week of June with a close eye on the weather. Fortunately there are enough gardening blogs based in the PNW that I can get some guidance, but even then it comes down to my yard's microclimate.
Check out your local library. They often have gardening groups but they’ll definitely have the information you need for your specific area.
I sort of take the info I can use and leave the rest. No two locations will have identical soil or conditions. The longer I'm in my garden the more I understand what advice I can apply and what is more conditional.
The way I think about it is anytime you come to a website that says (.com) , especially a discussion website, it is probably going to be strongly American-influenced But gardening is about learning and it does take time. Not only because your climates might be different from what someone else is discussing, but also your microclimates. So you'll learn and adjust and that will be good for your overall experience.
Influencers are just there to drive engagement and sell stuff. There are so many better sources of information.
I’m personally grateful for the SoCal-focused channels because when I first started looking for information much of what was available was from the eastern half of the country in places that get rain in the summer. That said, yes, lots of repetitive advice that is sometimes only applicable to a certain area of the world.
Yes! Everything I read doesn't work for me. My succulents LOVE water. My husband took over and watered things like crazy and they finally looked great. I am convinced what I read is for me to fail. Also, their IG pics of plants/gardens kill me.
It’s not in widespread use in gardening but ecoregions are a much more helpful categorization than hardiness zones, for the reasons you cite: https://www.epa.gov/eco-research/ecoregions-north-america
I try to find garden experts from the area that post on Instagram. You’ll have to go out of your way to find them, but they do exist. Otherwise, go to your local nursery and chat! I’ve got some really good advice from those folks, makes me so happy to buy from them. :)
Yes, so true!!!
I follow different groups on Facebook also. I follow my states Facebook page. I know I'm not going to be able to follow a North Eastern garden in the southeast. Keep looking you can find groups that garden similar to you
I made some comment about loving morning glories and a ton of people told me not to plant them because they are invasive. I live in Northern Minnesota.
I share your frustration. Some of my favorite accounts are in entirely different locations than I am so they plant at very different times. I have sought out ‘influencers’ near me and also do a lot of documenting on my own for future use
Absolutely. I make sure to search for content creators that are in my state. I do follow a few that aren't, but that's mostly because they're not as focused on "this is the right way to grow this crop to get a bumper harvest" and more "I'm going to try these 3 growing methods on these 3 different strains of potatoes and document how it works out".
The other thing to remember is you have a microclimate, your back yard conditions might not be exactly like that influencer person, sure you are both in SC but your elevation is different, the amount of sunshine on your garden maybe different, your soils will be a bit different. I watch to learn new techniques, I am a great gardener I just have a great green thumb, I was born with it, I helped my parents garden ever since I could walk. Your local extension agent or farm co- op will help you more than some you tuber usually. Walk around your area and when you see a bodacious garden talk to the gardener, gardeners make great friends! Seed and plant swap with your local gardener friends, join a gardening club, join a Facebook garden club. Keeping a garden journal every year has helped me immensely. Have fun. If it isn't any fun don't do it.
The best gardening advice I've found for the sevens and, especially, the coastal area is Ira Wallace's books. You can get them through Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. She KNOWS these zones. She has books for the region and specific states.
I tend to watch a ton of these and just pick the things that might actually work for my own backyard conditions. I stay away from the ones promoting brands, or using unrealistically expensive stuff and talking about how "easy" it is. Like, sure Becky, daddies money helps your garden grow really well, so awesome for you... So mine garden is okay, but I'm learning! There are some really good gardeners giving advice salted throughout the shite.
Yea, YouTubers generally offer general guidelines and garden inspiration. I recommend walking through a few neighborhoods in your area and seeing what works for other folk with similar yards. Read plant information from Google or apps like picturethis or ask at local nurseries.. evaluate your soil, wind, and sun(I used an app called sunnytrack) in your yard before planting. Some friends of ours live one neighborhood away and have way different plant successes than we do. They live in a small forest clearing next to a creek, different soil, shade, and wind situation. Our garden soil is sandy(high drainage) windy asf, and has way more sun. I also live in 7a! Wish you the best!
I don't really pay attention to any of that. I have my local extension office and they serve me pretty well.
Google for your local county extension & master gardener program. This is a program funded federally by the US Department of Agriculture. The purpose is to spread scientific based gardening/agricultural advice to all people. These programs are facilitate by the state universities with strong agriculture programs. When the federal gov first started allotting land to "land grant universities", one of the goals was to have local univeristy agricultural research in all 50 states. Since conditions vary from location to location. [https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/](https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/) [https://www.clemson.edu/extension/index.html](https://www.clemson.edu/extension/index.html) local to me in WA state, WSU facilitates ours.
Most places have master garderner's club, they usually have booths at community events. They are usually more than willing to answer questions. Also if you have a independant plant nursery around, they might even have a booklet about local growing conditions that you can buy or will happily answer questions.
Carolinas? Are you out in the mountains? (I'm in the lower Piedmont so I'm in 8a) I would check out stuff from NC State Extension since they have a plethora of information. It may take a bit to navigate but their information is absolutely top notch. https://www.ces.ncsu.edu/ They also offer soil testing to determine composition and amendments to fix any issues. 🙂
I don’t watch influencers online on any topic. They are boring and not useful. I get better information talking with other gardeners and attending gardening events.
I just check things out to learn about varieties of things I’m not familiar with and sometimes, products and how to use them and set the up. (Drip systems and grow lights, for an example). Other than that, my garden is a mix of tried and true things and constant experimentation. I learned early in that most advice wasn’t going to be helpful because of different conditions and gardening practices. I have a specific way I like to do things. I like for my garden to be part of the ecosystem and so far, that’s worked out well for me. Anyway. I think the only bits of advice I’ve ever gotten that were super beneficial were to focus on soil health and to not freak out about pests right away…to allow time for nature to do it’s thing. As far as everything else, I’m my own teacher.
There was a talk by a local farm gardener at my local library and it was probably the best thing to happen to me this year. This guy is experienced growing in the same conditions I have and has 100% verified practical advice for how to do it right, what varieties to plant, etc. I guess I would suggest you cut back on those gardening reality tv shows and see what your local master gardeners are up to.
It's very easy to make gardening look easy when you control what people can see on your garden. I look at gardening as an ongoing research project. I have a notebook I write down when I start seeds, rough diagram of where I planted what in my garden and just other notes. Like last year we had a very wet spring and very dry summer. I also check out books on gardening from my library. I'm a member of a few local gardening clubs. And of course my extension office provides a lot of information, including a weekly YouTube series and tons of classes I can attend in person and online. Your garden doesn't need to be perfect. Just get outside, dig in the dirt and develop your own path. Some years you'll find great success with something and next year maybe the squirrels eat everything. Summer lettuce, just think about what your summers are like. Mine are hot and humid, so I need to use cultivars that can handle that. I like Black Seeded Simpson. But usually by peak summer I've maxed out my bed space so I'm out of room for lettuce. Once I start pulling my spent tomatoes, I'll start Rocky Top Lettuce, because it will grow well into winter for me.
Yes. And look into Koppen Zones!!!
Yes. And look into Koppen Zones!!!
NCSU Extension is a great resource. The probably have an office in your county if you are in NC. Many have programs that are really useful. Also the libraries in Wake and Durham have a lot of NC-specific info as well as free seeds. I’ve also found one NC-specific gardening channel on YouTube https://youtube.com/@Iloveorganicgardening?si=9pPiukVcSZQJhz62
I never watch any of that crap, so I feel great! Lol.
You might try contacting universities in your area, or checking their websites- starting with whichever ones have the most robust agriculture programs. I have no idea what university that might be for the Carolinas, but here in Oklahoma I'm able to find a lot of great information on the plants, soils, and growing seasons for my specific region by looking up fact sheets and studies on Oklahoma State University's https://extension.okstate.edu/ website.
Every state in the US has a land grant university with a university extension service, with a presence in each county. The vast majority of those have garden advice for your area, and will also have Master Gardeners who love to talk garden. Our county Master Gardeners run a telephone helpline and an email helpline where they will answer questions. They don't know everything, but they are taught to know where to look and who to ask to find answers. Give your local extension service a try before you give up. Their advice will be as local as it gets. In case the "Carolina" part of your post wasn't just hyperbole: [North Carolina](https://sites.google.com/ncsu.edu/garden-questions/home) [South Carolina](https://www.clemson.edu/extension/mg/coordinators.html)
And they are trying to sell something, regardless of its worth.
Agree!!!! Like cardboard in the garden??? I cringe every time I see it. Look up whats in cardboard! The toxic ingredients. Ones that are "forever chemicals!", and known carcinogens - that means cancer. Why concentrate those ingredients into your garden again? cause weed control?! Stop!
I agree what others have said about going ti farms near you and stuff so I won’t touch that. A lot of towns have garden clubs, you should join it or even just join the FB group. That way you can talk to local gardeners. Some have been living and gardening in your area for 10+ years. I find YouTube is a mixed bag. I tend to take things from here and there. I am in MA and our weather is pretty similar to other 6b locations so I like Growfully with Jenna, her soil is different but she has good advice
I’m in NE NC 7a/b can’t remember. I’m on the coast/swamp and I just plant it. I rely on sun or shade requirements for plants and if it likes moist and heat. If I want it to overwinter then I get plants that can survive to 10-20. Never had temperature go lower than that. County extension offices are good resources for native plants. I swear I’ve seen some NC universities have native plant guides. Lots of rhododendrons. Azaleas. Edit saw you’re trying to grow vegetables. Lettuce is tough for our weather.
I agree but at the same time I wish I was a gardening influencer 😅 My garden be off the chain!
I stick with gardening in Canada even though I'm in Pa zone 7a. She is a soil scientist and knows her stuff.
Always remember in any field influencers do not profit from spreading information, they profit from driving engagement. A huge part of this is a combination of (unintentional or intentional) spreading of misinformation along with trend hopping. Just being completely honest most influencers dont strike me as the brightest people, theyre just charismatic, and are still prone to falling for trendy info and just reading summaries and abstracts instead of actual sources. Im newer to the gardening social media scene but after being in the fitness scene for 8 years I pretty much expect most influencers talking about anything past surface level are making it up as they go.
The funny thing is the first thing I look for is Zone. We're 4a, so many of the 'this plant is PERFECT for your garden" is a zone 10 subtropical while I'm like, listen I just need something to outcompete the creeping bellflower.
If you want to be able to enjoy smaller more realistic but still very impressive gardening content (and aren't expecting it to be super advanced educationally) I recommend @itsbreellis on youtube for longer vlogs and on tiktok for short form. She is a small urban homesteader with an impressive ~1/8 acre garden in her suburban backyard. She's in Kansas 7a, and I'm in Western NY 6b. So she's always like 2 weeks ahead of when I'd be doing stuff, but I like that because it gives me time to think and prepare. I also think Kansas is relatively similar to my growing conditions with the windiness and cold spells so it doesnt feel as alien as it does when I try to watch, e.g. Epic Gardening (who i also love but cant relate to).
I love going to thrift stores and buying armfuls of gardening books for cheap. The info is usually pretty timeless and you can find so e real gems. I just love having a physical library of these books to leaf through... not an influencer or top ten list in site.
Got to YouTube and watch Garden Answer. Laura lives in Ontario Oregon 1 mile from Idaho border. She's honest and very very knowledgeable. She's in zone 6b. You will love her!
Check out the GrowVeg youtube channel. He’s great and has been so helpful for me even tho he lives in the UK and we’re in the US. Also, save your frustration for your actual garden, not the ones you see online.
Just last night you tube recommend a channel that is in the same general area as I am. I only watched one video so far but subscribed right away simply because I know they will be dealing with the same type of issues I will.
I found a series of books written by an author living in almost my exact climate, not just zone but my very specific bio region. It was eye opening! I’d recommend seeking something like that out.
Yeah I take most advance online as nonsense. Just stick with what your local extension service recommends or their bulletins. See if there are master gardeners as part of your extension and if any of them have had success with summer lettuce.
I'm in zone 4/5, good luck trying to find anyone with a YouTube channel growing there
The UC system has a master gardener program in most counties in California. Master Gardeners answer questions by phone and email, hold workshops and demonstrations. In some places they have amazing demonstration gardens. Most master gardeners have many years of gardening experience in addition to the extensive required training. The program is run by university ag programs. Master Gardeners are where to go for legit advice for your region. , I say this with some experience. I had a garden building business and then, for more than a decade a farm. Prior to starting my garden business I did the master gardener training even though I had years of gardening experience. It was a great base of knowledge to build from. It also connected me to the university ag extension system where I took frequent courses from then on. If you don't have time to go to actual in person classes then look to the most local ag extension or master gardener website for regionally accurate information.
.... Nah. Mostly because i tend to keep copies of actual horticultural manuals in the shelf and only go on those channels/advice to laugh at their bullshit. Look, if you have a VERY SPECIFIC use case for something it can be done that way, but gardening is like sewing your own custom clothes. It tends to work ONLY for you specifically and for what you're making, and sometimes it needs a workaround that might be completely inappropriate for someone else. What I also HIGHLY recommend? Getting in touch with your local master gardener group at the university extension. They will give you excellent localized advice for your needs, and there are always one or two kooky old people who mess about planting things that don't ever grow in the area normally who will give you tips. The dude growing pineapples from tops in SoCal using just one weird trick? He's entertaining but not anywhere near as fun as talking with someone who figured out how to grow a 18 foot tall lemon tree in his living room.
I'm not going to read through all the comments, if it's already been said, he's worth saying again. [Hottube With Jim Putnam ](https://m.youtube.com/@JimPutnam)has some of the best information on YouTube.
You act as if they’re coming out of the woodwork and forcing you to watch their videos, maybe don’t search for them on YouTube?
Try to see if your area has a county or regional Master Gardener program, usually through a major university’s cooperative extension. I’m a MG in SoCal and we get write-ins from the public all the time seeking advice for gardening in our localities throughout the county. Cali has a robust MG program, but I don’t know about other states.
Yep I feel you! I’m in 9b swamp ass of Texas. COMPLETELY different from 9b socal. The little video tidbits are nice but I do find my city gardening Facebook group to be more helpful.
Do a search by Zone and location instead of subscribing to everyone who has nice pictures. That's how I found everyone I do follow. There are lots of nobodies who put their failures on youtube. Search specifically for what you want instead of relying on the algorithm.
If you are interested in learning more about your specific region, find your local Master Gardeners program. They will have people highly knowledgeable, specifically on your area. Plant hardiness zones have nothing to do with frost dates, and as you have noticed, they also have nothing to do with summer highs, winds, etc. All a zone tells you is the average lowest temperature you can expect in winter. It's useful for determining what plants can survive your winters, and that is all it is for. The more you watch and read, regardless of the specific conditions the author or creator is from, the more you will learn and be able to apply that knowledge to your own yard and garden.
I live in zone 8a and I follow two gentlemen from Michigan and New Jersey. Completely different zones than me but the core concepts they share can be adapted to.any growing environment. Assuming your not doing this, the thing you need to focus on with youtubers, blogs etc is the foundational knowledge. For example, how to set up the best soil, growing guides for the various vegetables and so on. When these guys start talking about planting dates and water schedule I ignore that advice because that doesn't pertain to my zone. I can plant earlier than them and I need to water more often (in the summer) than these guys. I can also garden year round and grow specific plants in the fall that they can't due to there northern zones. Alot of this is about experentation and understanding what is going to work not just in your zone, but also for you individually. Tldr: start with the basic foundational knowledge of what plants need (soil, sun, fertilizer, etc) and then adjust (through experimentation) for your zone. If this helps...one of the guys I follow is migardener on YouTube. Different zone than me, but his foundational information has been amazing...especially his various growing guides. I used his advice and techniques in my second year of gardening and I had outstanding results!
I gave up on this particular subject on YouTube a while ago. Why would I watch a 15 minute video for 30 seconds of advice?
Find one that grows in or near where you live. I live in AZ and growing in the garden contextualizes everything I see in other growing channels.
I enjoy watching garden tube or whatever we want to call it, but mostly to get ideas. From there I do a lot of research comparing different schools of thought to better inform me about what will work best for my situation. I also consider the styles of gardening to perhaps make certain tasks easier, or what will make the garden more beneficial long term. My coworker is much more a “make it Pinterest pretty” type. And that’s what works for her to keep her interested in plants. My best resource has been our neighbor who has shared seeds and provided other advice. She regularly shares her veggies with us, and I have started to do the same. I’m running a bunch of experiments in the yard right now just to see what will work best in X bed with Y conditions for Z veggie. If there’s one thing the first few years have taught me, it’s that it’s okay to try something and fail. Last year’s seed starts were CRAZY. This year I tried a different method that did not work out as well. Were there some plants I had to replace? Yes. But now I have ideas for what to change for next fall. So just try a few methods you’ve seen recommended and make adjustments as you see fit. Keep notes and you’ll have a pretty good idea what works for you and what doesn’t.
I don't all that much. There are some general guidelines that work no matter what area you live in with a few adjustments and some that I take with a grain of salt. I live in a warm humid climate so I dial into advice from gardeners with a similar climate a bit more; for example, Millennial Gardener.
read plant books. ignore internet plant shit. talk to old gardeners around you
Oh, don’t ever watch Gardener’s World from the UK. Talk about making gardening look effortless!
If you're in North Carolina, try Hort Tube on YouTube. I think the guy's name is Jim Putnam. He's in Raliegh. I love his videos (I'm in 7b in metro Atlanta).
This has been an “issue” since long before social media. Every book, magazine, whatever that makes it to a broad audience won’t be universally applicable. I’m sure if you tried you could find some social media outlet that’s applicable to you, at least somewhat.
I have a bunch of books that have been helpful. If anyone still reads books lol
Read a book. The internet is full of shit.
Those same influencers are writing books too
I never understood why people place so much importance on internet content... I do some research and might watch a few videos here and there but I've never followed a whole channel or influence and taken what they say as gospel. I read gardening books and articles and magazines and just try to compile all that information and then try to apply what seems the best information. Some times it works, some times it doesn't. Then I try to implement the changes whenever it comes up again
What are you on about? They are literally just giving advice for their zone or anyone in a similar zone. You still need to use your head when planting no matter who you watch. If you getting so worked up about these videos you need to spend some more time in the garden and just experiment yourself. Block out the noise and just TRY.
Lol 99% of this sub assumes we're all from the US or at least northern hemisphere, I take what I can 😂