US garden design guides by state

USDA zones 7b-9a

Alabama gardens enjoy one of the South's longest warm seasons with both Appalachian foothills and Gulf Coast climates inside one state.

USDA zones 1a-8b

Long summer daylight produces Alaska's famous giant cabbages and 50-lb pumpkins despite a season barely 100 days long.

USDA zones 4b-10b

Arizona's gardening calendar inverts the rest of the country — the prime season runs October to April when it's cool enough to be outdoors.

USDA zones 6b-8a

Arkansas straddles three regions — Ozark uplands, Delta flatland, and southern pine belt — each with its own garden palette inside a single state.

USDA zones 5a-10b

California's Mediterranean climate is one of only five worldwide and produces a year-round gardening season unmatched by any other state.

USDA zones 3a-7a

Colorado gardens contend with thinner air and harsher UV than any other state, rewarding plants tough enough for the Rockies' boom-or-bust weather.

USDA zones 5b-7b

Mountain laurel — Connecticut's state flower — anchors a New England woodland palette that few other states can grow as easily.

USDA zones 7a-7b

Delaware's flat coastal plain and long warm season make it one of the easiest Mid-Atlantic states for vegetable gardening — Sussex County leads the nation in lima bean production.

USDA zones 7b-8a

DC's famous tidal-basin cherry blossoms set the gardening calendar — a zone-7b city that gardens like the upper South thanks to its urban heat island.

USDA zones 8b-11a

Florida's winter is its prime vegetable season — tomatoes, peppers, and lettuce thrive from October to May while the rest of the country is frozen.

USDA zones 6b-9a

Georgia's red-clay Piedmont is the gardening identity of the state — once amended properly, the same clay grows the South's best azaleas and peaches.

USDA zones 9a-13a

Hawaii is the only state where tropical fruit, coffee, and orchids grow outdoors year-round — and where you can drive from rainforest to alpine desert in 90 minutes.

USDA zones 3a-7a

Idaho's volcanic loess soils are the reason the state grows ~30% of US potatoes — uniquely deep, drainable, and mineral-rich.

USDA zones 5a-7a

Illinois sits on the eastern tallgrass prairie — its native plant palette is the model for prairie-style ornamental gardens worldwide.

USDA zones 5b-6b

Indiana straddles the prairie-to-eastern-deciduous transition zone, supporting both Midwestern prairie plants and Appalachian woodland species in the same yard.

USDA zones 4b-5b

Iowa's mollisol prairie soils need almost no amendment — drop a seed in the ground and it grows, which is why corn is king.

USDA zones 5b-7a

Kansas straddles the boundary between humid eastern tallgrass prairie and arid western shortgrass prairie — your county determines which palette works.

USDA zones 6a-7b

Kentucky's limestone bedrock gives the Bluegrass region uniquely calcium-rich soils — the same reason the horses (and the bourbon corn) are world-famous.

USDA zones 8b-10a

Louisiana's subtropical climate and live-oak-and-Spanish-moss aesthetic produce a uniquely Southern garden palette found almost nowhere else in the country.

USDA zones 3b-6a

Maine's wild lowbush blueberry barrens are unique in North America — and the same acidic glacial soils make rhododendrons and azaleas exceptional here.

USDA zones 5b-8a

Maryland packs Appalachian highlands, Piedmont, and tidewater Eastern Shore into one small state — three garden palettes within a 3-hour drive.

USDA zones 5b-7a

Massachusetts' acidic cranberry bogs and Cape Cod sand make it the country's #2 cranberry producer — and create unbeatable conditions for blueberries and rhododendrons.

USDA zones 4a-6b

Michigan's Lake Michigan fruit belt is the country's leading producer of tart cherries — a microclimate found nowhere else in the Midwest.

USDA zones 3a-5a

Minnesota's University of Minnesota breeding program developed Honeycrisp, Zestar, and SnowSweet apples — proof that cold-climate fruit can be world-class.

USDA zones 7b-9a

Mississippi's combination of Delta black soil and a 250+ day growing season makes it one of the most productive vegetable-garden states in the country.

USDA zones 5b-7a

Missouri sits at the crossroads of prairie, Ozark uplands, and Mississippi alluvial valley — gardeners can pull from three distinct native palettes.

USDA zones 3a-6a

Montana's mountain-valley microclimates (the Bitterroot, Flathead, Gallatin) sustain orchards and gardens that would be impossible 100 miles east on the plains.

USDA zones 4b-6a

Nebraska's Sandhills — 19,000 sq mi of grass-stabilized sand dunes — are the largest such ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere, with a unique native palette.

USDA zones 4a-10a

Nevada is America's driest state — and its native sagebrush-step palette is both extraordinarily water-thrifty and beautiful when designed intentionally.

USDA zones 3b-6a

New Hampshire's combination of granite bedrock and acidic forest soils produces world-class fall foliage — and exceptional conditions for blueberries and mountain laurel.

USDA zones 6a-7b

New Jersey's nickname is earned — the Inner Coastal Plain grows the country's best tomatoes thanks to a unique mix of sandy loam, ocean moderation, and 200+ day seasons.

USDA zones 4b-9a

New Mexico chile is a protected cultural and agricultural icon — and the state's high-desert palette of Apache plume, chamisa, and pinyon offers a uniquely Southwestern garden vocabulary.

USDA zones 3b-7b

New York packs Adirondack alpine, Finger Lakes wine country, Catskill foothills, Hudson Valley, and NYC urban heat-island gardens into one state.

USDA zones 5b-8b

North Carolina contains three sharply different ecoregions — Blue Ridge, Piedmont, Coastal Plain — meaning the plant list 4 hours west is unrecognizable to a Coastal Plain gardener.

USDA zones 3a-4b

North Dakota's Red River Valley is so flat and so fertile it grows ~70% of US sugar beets and is one of the world's premier durum wheat regions.

USDA zones 5b-6b

Ohio sits at the prairie-deciduous transition — its native palette mixes oak-hickory forest plants with eastern tallgrass prairie species in the same yard.

USDA zones 6a-8a

Oklahoma's eastern redbud blooming in late March is the unofficial start of the state's gardening season — and the red Permian Bed clay is part of the state's gardening identity.

USDA zones 4b-9a

Oregon's Willamette Valley climate — mild winters, dry summers, rich volcanic soil — is one of the world's premier wine grape and hazelnut regions.

USDA zones 5b-7b

Pennsylvania's Lancaster County limestone soils support Plain Sect farming communities that have produced the country's most productive non-irrigated farmland for over 200 years.

USDA zones 6b-7a

Rhode Island's small size and 400 miles of coastline mean almost every garden is influenced by the Atlantic — perfect for seaside-cottage planting palettes.

USDA zones 7a-9a

Charleston's Lowcountry is one of the country's oldest continuously gardened landscapes — its live-oak-and-azalea palette dates back over 300 years.

USDA zones 3b-5a

South Dakota's Black Hills create a 7,000-foot island of cooler, wetter forest in a sea of dry prairie — and a unique gardening microclimate.

USDA zones 5b-8a

Tennessee's east-to-west elevation drop of 6,000 feet packs in Appalachian forest, Cumberland Plateau, Nashville Basin, and Mississippi Delta — four distinct garden regions.

USDA zones 6b-10a

Texas is so large and diverse that no single 'Texas garden' exists — Houston grows tropicals, Lubbock grows cold-hardy natives, and El Paso gardens like Phoenix.

USDA zones 4a-9a

Utah's Wasatch Front grows the country's most famous freestone peaches thanks to the lake-effect microclimate of the former Lake Bonneville lakebed.

USDA zones 3b-5b

Vermont's sugar maples produce more maple syrup than any other state — and the same cool, wet conditions make it North America's premier apple-cider region.

USDA zones 5b-8a

Virginia is widely considered the birthplace of American horticulture — Monticello's gardens and the Tidewater plantations established many of the South's enduring planting traditions.

USDA zones 4a-9a

Washington grows ~60% of all US apples — the rain-shadowed Columbia Basin combines hot dry days with cool nights and irrigation from the Columbia for unmatched fruit conditions.

USDA zones 5b-7a

West Virginia is the most mountainous state east of the Rockies — its hollows and ridges create dozens of microclimates within a single county.

USDA zones 3b-5b

Wisconsin is the country's #1 cranberry producer — the same acidic sandy bogs also produce exceptional blueberries and rhododendrons in unexpected pockets.

USDA zones 3a-6a

Wyoming is the windiest state in the lower 48 — successful gardens here are built around windbreaks first, plants second.