Cold Climate Gardening

This photo was taken two days before the digital thermometer bottomed out in January 2005Quite a while ago, someone emailed me, asking what was a cold climate. I never did answer them, because I thought it was obvious. A cold climate is any climate too cold to grow the plants you really want to grow. If you live in Austin, and you want to grow pineapples outdoors, obviously your climate is too cold. If you live next door to me, and you want to grow crape myrtles; sorry, you live in a cold climate.

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I had always thought you were in Zone 4, Ro, but when I consult my most detailed copy of the USDA Hardiness Zone map (which I got in an old issue of Fine Gardening) I see you actually are listed as Zone 5. Not that the map is the last word on what zone you are. When we first moved here in 1989, we had at least a week of winter lows to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. In 1993 it got even lower. But somewhere along the line, the winters started getting warmer. It’s gotten to the point where I’m surprised when we get subzero temperatures.

So, were those cold temperatures just a fluke, or are these warmer winters a …

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