There was a big article in the KC Star (www.kansascity.com) today concerning the hardiness map. Several people are wanting to make the KC area zone 6. Others are saying we could still get a really hard winter and it's better to be safe and keep it a zone 5. It has become a big political battle. I thought you all would be interested in it since it really concerns everyone.
USDA Hardiness map
The zones don't change just because the people WANT them to change!! Or do they...lol Okay, everyone...I want to announce that I now live in z8!!!! Anyone want to join me?! The weather will follow!!!
My brother lives in Gardner, just South of Olathe, and when they try to grow z6 flowers, sometimes they come back and sometimes not. I personally want to know if my flowers will be coming back or not next year. We had a very warm winter last year. The year before that was very cold. Perhaps the people who want z6 flowers should just plant them and leave the zoning out of it?
I totally agree!!! I would love to be able to grow plants in zone 8!!! But then I would miss what little snow we get. But I wouldn't miss the ice storms!! I still remember the one from 2002 I think it was. No power for 9 days.
I still think of us as zone 5. And many plants I get are for zones 3 or 4 and up just to be sure they will come back. I would really miss have seasons that change at least somewhat. It would be so boring to have just one kind of weather all year around.
I am a zone 5 person too, but I still would like to be able to grow the less hardy plants here. They are better looking!!!
Woohooo Crystal! If you're z8....then I will be in z9...I really like that idea!
If we change our zones to what we want, will the flowers and all our plants go along with it. No matter what??
Well, sure!!
No worries about missing the snow...I'll just go over to my neighbor's house when I want to see that- they still live in z5!!
You got a point there!
I know one of these years a "normal" zone 6 winter will come along, and eliminate my tender Kiwis that have been growing outside for at least 10 years. Until it does, I am continuing to enjoy the vines and the blooms...no fruit.
I am with the group who enjoys the change of seasons. If only I didn't have to stoke the wood stove all winter! We have no other source of heat, except small electric heaters ( for bathrooms and utility room).
A wood stove!!! We have wanted one of those for years but have not been able to afford one. We also run our house on electric heat. We use baseboard heaters. They work pretty well.
Pepper, it is the least expensive source of heat for us. We have our own woods, and my DH is still able to cut all the firewood. This may be the last year that he can. He will be 80 in August, and is poor health. This spring he has cut a lot from the slab wood that comes from his cousin's sawmill.
Hey Marianinark- I can sympathize with you. Our house is OLD...we don't have central heating, either. We have one of those old time gas heaters in one room, a wood stove in another room, and electric heaters for 3 other rooms. I've also been known to cook dinners in the winter that require the oven for hours. That helps. lol
If you get a lifeguard make sure he's extremely good looking!!! LOL Otherwise what's the point of having one??
Cjolene, Our house isn't "old". My DH built it in 1983-84. We chose to not install central heat, for financial reasons. Twentytwo years ago we didn't realize how we would age over the years! :-(
It is lots harder to do the wood heat now, but DH's aunt and uncle were a lot older than we are when they still burned wood.... well, not a "lot" older than DH. They were about 90. I keep thinking "If they could do it, I can do it" . But everybody doesn't age the same. Besides, they had children close by that helped them. Our only child lives a 4 hour drive from us, and our 3 granddaughters are still in grade school. They live 3 and 1/2 hours drive away.
Sorry...I meant that my house was old. It was built in 1901. Central heating wasn't an option then.
Zones do not mean as much as where the plant is planted. If the culturing is off they will not come back is what I think. give you an example. impatients are suppose to be a annual in this area. I have a bed of them that I put in every year that faces north west and bears the blunt of everything winter offers including a lot of wind since they face a open lake and it is about a long ways to the other bank. Yet I am ficking last yerars out like weeds since there is a differnt color scheme there this year. They come up by the hundrerds and I am about to give up trying to weed them out. They are growing in a very rich compost based bed.
I heat with wood a lot. We have a large Ben Franklin Stove instead of a fireplace. But we also have a heat pump. Ground contact heat pumps are by far the cheapest heat you can find in a small home. My daughters home in Columbus Oh was built in 1880. It is restored but it is still would break the average person to heat. She had one heating bill last winter somewhere between $800 and $900 bucks.
OMG and I was complaining on paying over $350 for propane for a month. But that didn't include electric. We also have a wood burning stove. Not as big of one that I would like to have. After we started using it the propane went down to only being filled every two months. We only used the furnace over night and first thing in the morning.
Linda