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Re: re: zip code zones

 
 
On Sat, 21 Feb 2004 00:58:49 -0800 "Lazy Gardener" <l*@comcast.net> writes:
 
>Obviously, some horticultural and financial resources need to be devoted to making the >hardiness makes more functional and accurate!!!!!!
 
I have a short handled eight pound sledge in my tool box. I wouldn't be without it. It does several things, and what it does, it does fairly well. But I wouldn't use it to fix the carburator on my lawn mower  If they changed the shape of the face a little, maybe made it 7 pounds 11 ounces or 8 pounds 3 ounces, changed the handle from ash to fiberglass it still wouldn't be much help with a cranky carburator.
 
I feel the same way about zone maps. They are a crude tool that will do a rough job fairly well. Fiddling with the lines might make them a little better, but not much, and in most cases isn't worth the effort.
 
The map puts my yard in zone 5. In fact it's mostly zone 6; my neighbor is zone 5. And my yard has four different zones, from zone 4 down where the barn collects cold air at the bottom of the lot to zone 7 up close to the foundation.
 
In fall when the first frosts hit, this neighborhood turns white early in the morning, but that white stops just about at my property line. And in spring my garden is snow free while my neighbor, a hundred yards down the hill, is still covered. My growing season is probably six weeks longer than his.
 
No zone map can account for that, no matter how you improve it. And my situation is more the rule than the exception. So keep on "improving" the maps, if you must, and keep on arguing whether it is better or worse. In the end, it makes little difference.
 
D
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