Ohio River Valley Gardening: Zone Pushing!, 1 by henryr10

henryr10 wrote:
I grew up in Kettering Ohio so I'm very familiar w/ your weather.

Poinsettia we used to grow year round.
Lately we've not bothered, but they are fun.

To REALLY push you need to do a few things.
Have a South facing area, near a building or wall and most important limited water or rain shadow.
We have an overhanging roof that creates such an area.
We added a hedge in front.. south of the house.
So the plants and area are protected from winds.

Our yard is fenced w/ a 6' tall solid wood fence and on the north side we have
15-20' tall bamboo. Phyllostachys aureosulcata.
In the yard we have many water features and have added 10 tons of rock.
This adds about a 1/2 to a full Zone in areas back there in most winters.