How do I know what zone I am in?

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CatCanCue Santa Maria, CA May 02, 2008

I live in santa Maria, CA (actually Orccutt to be more precise). I called the Extension Office here in town and asked. I thought it was a routine question, but the guy said he had to look up the answer. He got back on the line and said Zone 9 or 10. What I read about these zones online doesn't seem to jibe.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 03, 2008

Here are a couple places where you can find zone maps. http://davesgarden.com/zone/ I know about where Santa Maria is and I would have to agree with your extension guy, you're either in 9 or 10. You're far enough from the ocean that I'd probably guess zone 9 rather than 10, usually the only parts of CA that hit zone 10 are the coastal areas. The reason why the info you're finding probably doesn't sound like your climate is that the USDA climate zones are based on typical winter low temperatures and absolutely nothing else. Most of the other places in the country that are in zone 9/10 are in the warm, humid, wet south, so people typically base their comments about zone 9/10 climate on those areas rather than the parts of CA that are in zone 9/10.

Sunset has come up with a much more useful zone system that takes into account things like summer highs and rainfall in addition to winter lows. I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy of the Sunset Western Garden Book if I were you, it's a great reference for gardening out here. Here's a zone map from Sunset's web page, but they have more detailed maps in the book which make it much easier to figure out which one you're in. http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/0,20633,845238,00.html I've found their zones and the info in the book about which plants do well in my zone are much more useful than the USDA zones for finding things that will do well.

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