USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
Here in Kentucky, we are in Zone 6. These zones are mapped across the U.S. and Canada and are meant to give you a sense of which plants will thrive in which area. USDA zones are based on the coldest temperature an area tends to reach in the winter, separated by increments of 10 degrees.
The lower a zone number is, the colder that area’s weather is. Zone 6 usually experiences a yearly low of -10 F. It stretches in something like an arc, more or less, across the middle of the U.S. In the northeast, it runs from parts of Massachusetts down into Delaware. It stretches south and west through Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, and even parts of New Mexico and Arizona before turning northwest up through Utah and Nevada, ending in Washington state. If you live in zone 6, you laugh may at the idea of lows like this because you’re used to warmer or colder temperatures. It’s not at all foolproof, but it’s a very good guideline. Planting and growing zone 6 plants typically begins around mid-March (after the last frost) and continues through mid-November.
