European and Greek Plant Hardiness Zone
The truth is that I had no idea about these zones. I only knew the plant zones of Mediterranean Flora which is related with forest trees mostly.
But as I start the gardening blogging I read in many blogs for the Plant Hardiness Zone of USDA and after I found also some UK and other European blogs to talk about these zones.
As you understand I start wonder about these zones and try to find the plant hardiness zone (also known as climate zones or growing zones) of my area in Greece.
I found from some maps that we have 3 zones in Greece
- Zone 8 (from -7°C to -12°C)
- Zone 9 (from -1°C to -7°C)
- Zone 10 (from -1°C to 4°C)
I think my Container Garden in City and my Priceless Plot are both in Zone 9 because the coldest nights here are usually at -1°C or -3°C.
If you live in Europe and you wonder about the growing zone in your area you can find some useful maps and information in the the following links.
Hardiness zone (Wikipedia)
Map1,
I am not sure if the minimum temperature can describe one area because you must see and the other factors to determine the microclimate of the area. For me, the most important things are the water and heat mostly and not the minimum temperatures of winter.
Interesting. It looks like we garden in pretty similar climates. My apartment is in Zone 10. Makes sense since Southern California is often calleda “Mediterranean Climate.”
Like you, I’m not sure how useful these zones are because they only measure the coldest temperatures, not the hottest or the humidity, rainfall, etc… When I look at the map I see that where I live now in the Languedoc is zone 9, but so is where I used to live in west Wales. The two climates are completely different in all but the minimum temperature. Here is is a dry Mediterranean climate, in Wales it is a temperate mild damp climate. Maybe these zones work well as indicators in the US, but I don’t think they do in Europe.
@Fern I found a map yesterday where they mark some areas in Earth where you can find mediterrannean climate and they had California also.
It’s interesting the note under the map “all mediterranean climate areas lie between about 30o and 45o of latitude and they are all near the coast on the western edge of continents”
@chaiselongue I think these zones are good only if you want to know what month you can start spring gardening and when your plants will be freeze
I don’t think USDA zones are very helpful here in Europe. The weather patterns here just work differently, and we have a lot of micro-climates that just don’t exist in the US.
A better measure may be the number of frost free days you have each year, but they don’t really think along those lines in the US.
Here in northern Europe we have the problem of greyness. Sometimes we just don’t get much sun during the summer, and it can be very wet. You can’t really explain this in USDA zones either.
@Patrick for me it’s good to read other mediterrannean blogs as @chaiselongue blog because we have so many commons in weather and micro-climates.
Some areas in Europe have “same” climate” and maybe we can make some “general zones” with similar factors.
I think USDA with these zones they try to do something like this for the gardeners of USA.
I have no idea if they know the problem of greyness in Northern Europe. For me as Greek it’s hmm… impossible to live in a country without sun but I worry for the drought all my life and I love the rain.