Smart Gardener uses climate data for the US to make plant recommendations and recommend planting times to gardeners based on where they live. If you aren't located in the US, you can adapt Smart Gardener's recommendations to your location by manually editing your Growing Conditions.
If you don't need to follow Smart Gardener's recommendations for your garden, you don't need to edit your conditions - you are free to plant whenever you'd like, and track your progress using Smart Gardener's To Dos and Journal.
You can edit your Growing Seasons / Growing Conditions on the Garden Settings page:
1. Be sure to enter a zip code into your settings before you manually set your growing conditions. If you change your zip code after you set your conditions and/or frost dates you will lose your changes. You can use any US zip code, but you should choose one that has a somewhat similar climate to where you are gardening. This is so that Smart Gardener can offer you more accurate plant variety recommendations.
2. Click on the blue Edit link under Your Growing Seasons on the Garden Settings page to view a more specific growing conditions chart.
And then you will see your more specific growing conditions that will look something like this.
3. Next you want to find a Climate Graph online for your location (or closest city) that displays the average daily minimum and maximum temps for each day or week of the year. You can use this graph to indicate which boxes of your Growing Seasons you should fill in - if the temperature range for a week fits within any of the ranges to the left of the Your Growing Seasons chart, you should fill in the box of that row. Click on the How does this work? link for more info.
Below is an example of what a Climate Graph may look like courtesy of usclimatedata.com, but you can also find these graphs at worldweatheronline.com, weather.com, weatherspark.com and more. You can also just google "(your city) average high and low temp".
4. Set your frost dates correctly according to your location. If your location doesn't experience frost, we recommend the following:
-Set the Spring Last Frost date to be 2 to 3 weeks before the time that local sources tell you to plant Tomatoes outdoors in your climate.
-Set the Fall First Frost date to be roughly 3 months after you would plant Peas in the fall in your climate.
5. Great work! You are all set to start growing great food with Smart Gardener! You will now receive accurately timed To Dos for the plants in your garden, and you will be recommended plants based on your actual climate.