Z is for... Zones!

The United States Department for Agriculture (USDA) plant hardiness zone map, 1990

If you blog about gardening here in Britain, it's not too long before you encounter your American and Canadian cousins who all talk about which zone they garden in as if it was as natural as breathing. Strike up a conversation with any of these gardeners and it's not long before you're asked what zone is your garden? Luckily when I was first asked this last year, I had just been looking at the above map in The Essential Design Workbook by Rosemary Alexander.

For an explanation about these zones and which one I placed my garden in, without having to read the above book, hop on over to Veg Plotting for the answers.

Many thanks to Denise, Gerald and the rest of the ABC team for ensuring we all made it here to the end of ABC Round 3 :D

Y is for ...YAWA - Your Guide to January's Top Events!

Last year when ABC Wednesday was back at S, I promised You Ask, We Answer would provide a guide to UK gardening events for 2009. At the time I thought I'd just highlight the quirky like the sprout festival Anna had found, but on doing some research, I thought it would be good to include all manner of things which you might be interested in hearing about or even attending. I found the list got ever larger, so I've divided it into a monthly guide.

Although it's winter and our gardening activities are severely curtailed, there's still plenty of events to highlight this month. To find out more, hop on over to Veg Plotting, where details of Gardeners' Question Time, Potato Days, the RSPB Garden Bird Watch, Wassailing, the Whittlesea Straw Bear and your chance to quiz the Royal Horticultural Society await you!