How Long Is Your Growing Season?

Growing seasons are often described as being “long” or “short” - but what does this really mean?

A viewer recently asked me, “how long is your winter”? I think this viewer was really trying to get a sense of the length of my growing season - but was asking the question “upside down” - because this particular viewer lives in New Zealand. Nevertheless, this seemingly simple question really got me thinking, because my first instinct was to reply, “it depends” - but this is a strange way to answer a question that has a very definite answer.

Solstices and equinoxes

In the Northern hemisphere¹, winter, spring, summer and fall all begin at specific times attached to Earth’s orbit around the sun, which for 2023, are the following:

• Spring Equinox - March 20

• Summer Solstice - June 21

• Fall Equinox - September 23

• Winter Solstice - December 21

The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, with the sun being above the horizon for more minutes than on any other day, and the opposite is the case for the winter solstice, with it being the shortest day of the year. The spring and fall equinoxes are the two days of the year when the day and night are of equal duration.