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Re: re: zip code zones

I agree, being downslope from the Weather Bureau about 200 yards, and having a colder climate. In any case, as long as they measure temperature at 5 feet higher than ground level, Weather Bureau figures are not crucially relevant to gardeners. If we were growing levitating plants...Margaret Lauterbach



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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