Your Garden - The Ultimate Gardener Guide! AAA+++

For most of us our garden is our own private refuge, a place where we can satisfy our
need for beauty, tranquillity and personal achievement. The garden provides a link with
nature, a balance and harmony of the living world. Each garden is an entity, created
from its share of the sun and rain and the qualities of the soil, with its own unique
character.
The majority of plants we grow today have been brought from far-flung regions of the
world, giving us variety and the opportunity to experience growing different species than
those found locally. Many native species are cultivated to improve appearance and
stamina, strengthening their immune system to resist pestilence and predators, creating
larger flowers with better form, colour and features and give longer flowering periods.
However, those people with an interest in cultivating plants which are extremely tender
to the area where they garden, must go to some lengths to enable their choice of plants
to flourish and must give them winter protection.
There are many factors affecting a plant's hardiness, or rather its ability to succeed in
any particular place. The type of soil, its ability or inability to release nutrients, or to
drain, or to allow roots to penetrate to sufficient depths, can all affect plant growth. The
level of rainfall, and when it falls, is vital. In many places around the world drought is a
problem, particularly in the hottest regions.
In Northern Europe, it is often not the lack of water but excess, especially if it is
accompanied by cold spells. Shelter, in a larger area as provided by hills and mountains
or more locally by buildings, walls and trees, these affect what can be grown
successfully.
Towns and cities are usually a few degrees warmer than rural areas. Frosts can be
preceded by snow, which provides protective insulation for plants; frost before snow,
especially if it is accompanied by drying winds, can damage plants. An overnight frost on
a calm night maybe harmless; a prolonged frost can prove fatal even for some of the
hardiest varieties. Northern and eastern winds, or salt-laden winds from the sea, can be
disastrous. Day length, the angle of the sun and brightness of the light, are as important
as the temperature.
Climates repeat themselves around the world due to weather patterns, latitude,
proximity to large bodies of water (oceans and major lakes) and other factors. Many of
us garden in temperate to sub-tropical climates and these are the ranges of climate in
which the vast majority of our "hardy" garden plants originate.
If we can identify the broad type of climate where we garden, and we know where a
plant is native and can identify the broad type of climate of that area, we are then
moving in the right direction for successful gardening.