On Oct 19, 12:24*am, "David Hare-Scott" wrote:
eva shovelful wrote:

. *I see this newsgroup is pretty informative and there are some

who are very helpful with legitimate questions regarding gardening
problems. *By the way, how do I find out what garden zone I am in?

http://www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/ushzmap.html

There are similar maps for other countries in other places.

I

am very frustrated with the local extension agents here because it's
predominately a farming area on a large and commercial scale. Mostly
corn, soybeans, millet and cotton. *I haven't seen much in the way of
unique plantings, yet. But now that we've moved here, I hope to break
that common thread I see in every yard. *Nandina, crape myrtles, all
seemingly the watermelon color or white ones, mums, celosia (a local
woman called them cocks combs) lots of boxwood, Banana plants of all
things, canna's, elephant ears and lantana that apparently comes
back. *So I need to find out how to find the gardening limit zone for
growing. *Any ideas?

Thank you in advance.

The above will give you a start but it tells you only about cold hardiness.
There is some correlation between that and other conditions, eg a zone that
has a very cold winter is unlikely to have a very hot summer. *But within a
given cold zone there are other climate conditions such as the maximum heat
of the summer and the length of the growing season which can make a
difference. *Also microclimate can make a difference, for example, some of
my neighbours who are up the hill (in the same cold zone) have much less
trouble with frost sensitive plants than I do.

David

thanks David. I went to the site and it said I was roughly in zone
7b. I understand about micro climates and that Mother Nature hits us
wiwth whatever temperatures she decides on, so I take it with a grain
of salt as well. And wonder upon wonders, I was at a Border's
bookstore (not hawking Borders, just happened to be at one) and they
had this incredibly huge book on sale called The American
Horticultural Encyclopedia A-Z that was originally almost $80, and I
got it for $19.95!!??? So I looked inside and apparently it was a
"reissue" of a book that came out previously a few years ago and I've
seen it spoken about as I lurked on this newsgroup, and snapped it
up. There are apparently heat tolerant zones as well, which were
illustrated on the inside back of this incredible book. I am reading
it piece by piece, but it's packed with information. I may go back
and purchase another one while it's reduced and send it to one of my
best friends who also gardens! again, thanks for the website.