Canadian Garden Zones vs. US Garden Zones

Helen Battersby of torontogardens.com

We are joined by Helen Battersby, a Toronto garden blogger, garden coach, and publisher of the Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal.

She explores a topic that a lot of new gardeners are not even aware of—that there are different garden-zone systems used in Canada and the USA.

Always eager to push zone boundaries, Battersby finds that many gardeners live in a state of “zone denial.”

Garden Zones

Battersby talks about the difference between the Canadian and American garden zone systems—both of which provide gardeners with a zone number to use when selecting hardy plant material. The lower the number, the colder the garden zone.

She points out that while her garden is a zone 6 using the Canadian system, it’s a zone 5 using the American system.

The Canadian system uses a number of variables including lowest mean temperature of the coldest month, highest mean temperature of the hottest month, precipitation, and the number of frost-free days.

The American (U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA) zones are based solely on average annual minimum temperatures.

She likens the Canadian system to a Betamax; and the US systmem to the VHS.

TorontoGardens.com

Battersby and her sister, Sarah, run the award-winning blog torontogardens.com.

They started the blog at a time when a lot of Canadian gardening magazines were folding, with a goal of filling the gap left by the loss of the gardening magazines.

The Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal

The journal, in its 29th year, was started by Margaret Bennet-Alder. She entrusted the publication of the journal to the Battersby sisters when she was 90.

The journal was born out of tragedy. Bennet-Alder’s son David was diagnosed with schizophrenia. To track his medications and appointments, he created a booklet that had a pair of pages for each week. She saw his book with its seven weekdays, along with an empty eighth space. She decided to use that empty space for garden tasks. And so was planted the seed for The Toronto Gardener’s Journal.

Her son helped her refine the design and taught her how to use software for the creation of the first print run of 500. It became a meaningful project for the both of them.