Before you begin buying plants for your own garden, you should make sure you know what USDA plant hardiness zone you are, along with understanding your microclimates. For me, it's a zone 7a and because I stay on a 27ha farm, there are many different microclimates because the terrain has a 100m difference from the bottom to the top. It is characteristically grassland and bushveld. At the bottom we can grow pecanuts and always get a good harvest each year, closer to the house we have a mango orchard (10a-11b) and citrus orchard (9-11). Our pecanuts and mango we don't have to give additional water to but if we don't give water to the citrus twice a week their leaves curl and they go into shock.

However, you can grow many things in different zones due to good old fashion horticulture that you wouldn't have been able to 100 years ago. 7a