You know, it's so funny when I was at the beginning of my gardening journey, when today's

episode was recorded, this is part of the Best of Growing Joy replay series. I remember whenever

anyone would mention heartiness zones or frostates to me, my eyes would immediately glaze over.

Like, I would immediately stop listening. I had no idea what my heartiness zone was. I didn't know

when my frostates were. I didn't care.

I'd lived in the same area for my entire life, didn't know my zones, right? And now that I've

been gardening for several years, my hardiness zone and frostates are like so second nature to me.

And it's so funny because when I talk about gardening to new gardeners and I mention, oh, I live in zone 10b now that I'm in South Florida, I see them glaze over. And it's like the same glazed over experience. And I understand that this idea of microclimates or hardiness zones, frostates can be a little overwhelming because they're foreign words. They're not words that were raised with and learn in

school. It's really only language the gardeners use, but it's actually so simple. And so I had Rochelle

Greyer of Pith and Vigger join me for this podcast episode a couple of years ago, which was part of the

my first garden series. It was my first venture growing outdoors when I moved to the Catskills.

And we talked about how to understand all of these words, how simple it actually is, how you come about whatever your

number is, is it 10A, is it 10B, is it 6B? We unpack what the zones mean, how they matter,

and how you can plan your first or your first outdoor garden

and have way more success by understanding your frost aids. Believe you me, very helpful. So without

further ado, here's Rochelle. Welcome to the Growing Joy with Plants podcast, where we not only learn how to care for plants

successfully, but how to simply and affordably use our plant babies to cultivate more joy

in our lives by doing so.

I'm Maria, former plant killer turned happy plant lady, author of Growing Joy, The Plant

Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness,

speaker, podcaster, and most importantly, your new best plant friend.

On Growing Joy with Plants, you'll find conversations about house plant care, gardening tutorials,

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