How to garden in zone 5?
How To Garden in zone 5 doesn’t have to be intimidating.
When I started gardening, I grew in a zone 7b/8a depending on the year. When I relocated to my new area, I was shocked at how little information I was finding on growing in zone 5. Some years I’m in a zone 5a some years we are as warm as a zone 6a but our season are short and temperamental here in the high desert. Do not fret, just because the season is shorter does not mean that you cannot have a beautiful and productive season.
How to Garden in Zone 5
Zone 5 typically has a shorter grow season. This tends to scare many would be gardeners off. There is nothing worse than getting your seeds established and growing for a late June cold snap to kill off all your plants. There are a number of things you can do to help protect your plants and extend your growing season from the sporadic and temperamental frosts.
How to Garden in Zone 5
Today I’m going to teach you how to overcome some of the obstacles you face in a colder zone.
4 Tips for growing in zone 5.
- Random frosts
- Short season
- Choosing the right plants
- Flowers
Random Frosts
A random frost can come early in the fall or late into spring in the temperamental zone 5.
That is nothing you can’t handle though. There are many tools that are simple designs to help protect your plants and extend your grow season.
- Cold frames
- Hoop houses
- Green houses
Cold Frames- can be made of a thick plastic or of glass. The cold Frame creates a mini green house affect directly over a garden bed. The sun heats the glass which in returns heats the soil. You can plant salad greens and herbs inside these. Then even if there is a random snow store your plants should survive it. Leaving you picking salad greens into November and as early as March.
Hoop houses- Hoop houses are easy to make using Rebar, ½ inch PVC tubing, clamps, and a frost cloth. The nice thing about making these small hoop houses you can make them as long or short as you need. After planting you can use this Frost cloth to help prevent any damage from those late spring storms. The frost cloth is easy to use. Just make sure to get a heavy duty winter frost cloth and not a light weight shade cloth.
Because I also deal with deer and other wildlife, I like to replace the frost cloth with bird netting when the weather is hot. These easy to use layouts is also the most affordable of the options.
Green houses- Green houses are great there are so many different styles. Finding the right one to suit your needs will be easy. Choosing between the different choices is the hard part. Green houses greatly vary in prices as well. IF you have a climate controlled greenhouse you can grow all year long regardless of the temperature outside.
Short Season
With an average last frost date between the end of May and early June. The first frost date can also show up anywhere between late September and early October. If you plan to grow in this season you will want to either buy seedlings or start seeds indoors around Mid march-Early April. Only choose plants that have a long grow season if they are also hardy in a frost. The grow season can be 100-150 days depending on the year and elevation. My personal area is closer to the 100 day mark.
Choosing the Right Plants!
Anything that takes longer than 100 days needs to be able to handle a frost or be able to finish ripening off the vine. There are many different types of vegetables you can grow even with a short grow season. It really is about the variety. A giant pumpkin would be more difficult to grow because it needs close to that 150 day mark but there are still plenty of jack-o-latern varieties that will grow in 110 days. Many of the pie pumpkin varieties are ready in under 90 days.
Cole Crops
Cole crops are also your friend. Many Cole crops can handle a frost or two. So growing broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower all work well in this area. Peas, greens, and beans all grow very well because they all have short grow seasons.
Herbs
Many herbs are perennial and will come back on their own. Herbs like oregano, thyme, rosemary, Lavendar, chamomile, and mint to name a few.
Root Vegetables
Root vegetables, potatoes, parsnips, turnips, radishes ,and carrots do well here. You can do sucession planting on your carrots and radishes to have a supply to last you through out the year. Carrots actually get sweeter after a couple of frosts.
Berries
Berries do just fine in this zone. Especially blackberries, raspberries, elderberries, and strawberries. These plants are all frost hardy and come back on their own each year. Berries are fun to grow and even more fun to eat. There are even varieties that do not have thorns.
Summer Vegetables
These are the more difficult of the plants to grow in these areas just because they do not like the cold. Heat yes, cold no. Planting them after Memorial Day and then covering in frost clothes can help these plants establish even with the night temperatures still dipping into the 40’s. These plants are really important that you choose short varieties. Like with watermelons choose a sugar baby variety is a small-medium watermelon the grow cycle is around the 90 day mark. Covering with a frost cloth will help keep the soil warm and prevent the roots from being stunted due to frost.
Fruit Trees
Fruit trees- There are many fruit trees that grow in zone 5. However, there are not many citrus trees that grow in this zone but there are plenty of fruit trees to choose from. Some of those options are apple trees, pear trees, cherry trees, peach trees, and plum trees. Looking for the right variety will ensure that you have a hardy tree capable of surviving the harsh winters.
Flowers
How to Garden in Zone 5
Vegetables are not the only things that you can grow in this zone. There are many flowers for every season that you can grow in this area. For bulb flowers layering them by who comes up last gets planted deepest and who comes up first in a season gets planted last. Many flowers require stratification- where the seeds need to be at least 40 degrees for a week before they can begin the germination process. There are many beautiful flowers that will grow in zone 5.
How to Grow in Zone 5
Hopefully this helped you with the confidence to grow in zone 5, even if your growing season is short. Zone 5 gardening is completely possible. Happy Gardening
Growing wild things
