These aren’t opinions about gardening. Each one is a synthesis of the public federal record — read the way an experienced grower reads it.
The same contamination, climate, soil, and native-range data anyone can download, pulled together and translated into what it means on the ground. Read them to learn the national picture; the numbers that matter most are the ones under your own address.
Garden Contamination
What the federal contamination record actually means for a backyard garden.
Contamination Rankings
County-by-county risk, synthesized from 9 federal contamination sources.
Native Plants
Native species by state — and why they shape what truly thrives on your land.
Pet-Toxic Plants
Common garden plants that can hurt dogs and cats — and which parts to actually avoid.
Growing Season
How many frost-free days you actually have — and what fits in them.
Sourced, not invented
Every figure on these pages traces to a named public authority. We do the synthesis and the interpretation — the underlying record is open, and so is our plant catalog, which is published as a citable dataset.
Primary sources
- USDA PLANTS — native ranges and species traits
- NOAA Climate Normals — frost dates and growing-season length
- USDA NRCS SSURGO — soils, texture, and drainage
- EPA FRS — the federal facility / contamination record
- ASPCA — plant toxicity to dogs and cats
Cite this dataset
Kirchick, M. (2026). Growable Ground Plant Database [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21435643
Licensed CC BY-NC 4.0. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21435643
See these numbers for your address
Enter your address and we read the same federal record — contamination within range, your soil, your frost dates — for one exact parcel, then score 1,086 plants against it.
Three things about your exact spot that zone averages miss:
We read public map data for this spot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources analyzed in seconds
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does the data in these stories come from?
Every story is built from the public federal record — USDA PLANTS for native ranges, NOAA climate normals for frost and season length, USDA SSURGO for soils, and 9 federal contamination sources for the risk maps. We synthesize and interpret it; we don't invent it.
Can I cite or reuse the plant database?
Yes. Our catalog of 1,086 plants is published as a citable dataset on Zenodo under a Creative Commons license (CC BY-NC), with a permanent DOI. The "Cite this dataset" block on this page and on the Plant Library has the full, ready-to-paste citation.
How current is this data?
Each story shows its own data vintage, because the sources update on different schedules. The plant catalog is versioned on Zenodo, so a specific snapshot can be pinned; the federal layers reflect the latest published survey for each source.
Do these stories tell me about my specific address?
Not directly — these are national syntheses meant to teach. A Growable Ground report is where the same data gets read for one exact parcel: your soil, your frost dates, the contamination record within range of your address.
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