Two questions

Okay, this is probably really stupid but wouldn't the Mid-Atlantic forum and North East forum be the same?

My other question isn't nearly as stupid. What zone am I in?!! I keep getting conflicting info when I look it up! I'd like to find out once and for all!

I'm in Maryland, zip code 20833, Montgomery County.

I keep looking up zone and forgetting anyway. (7a,6b or was it the other way around?) I take it as approximate and take into account my microclimates will affect it, and year to year variations too.

might have to ask Dave about regional forums.

This message was edited Dec 18, 2007 11:26 AM

When I first started here in DG I wasn't sure if I belonged in the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic. I think of myself as living in the Northeast and started out visiting the Northeast Region Forum first. I found that me & my plants seemed to have more in common with the Mid-Atlantic and have happily settled here.(No offense to the Northeast Forum) I have also found that many other Pennsylvanians some much farther north than I am are also in this forum. As for Zones I am either 6a or 6b my area is right on the edge and with micro microclimates you could move up or down a zone depending on exposure, elevation & other factors.

Mid Atlantic forum is a state of mind and not a geographic location. LOL Captmicha, I think of the Mid Atlantic states as being those that border the Atlantic and are in the center - not too far north and not too far south. I guess you can shift that north/south border as much as you want.

As far as gardening goes, we have more in common with each other but also with someone in, say, Kentucky, than we do with someone gardening in South Carolina or New Hampshire.

I would have considered North Carolina part of the Mid Atlantic but I guess most of the people who live there don't because we have hardly anyone stopping in here who's from NC. It's up to you where you want to hang out. I certainly don't know of any better way to describe our region.

Here is the latest update re-done in 2006 by The Arbor Day Foundation of our gardening zones. http://www.arborday.org/media/zones.cfm

Personally, I equate my gardening zone & micro-climate with the Southern states, such as Virginia, N. Carolina & Eastern Kentucky. For the past several years, my gardening zone (Howard County, 21042) has experienced a much hotter & drier period during the late Spring, Summer & early Fall. For the past several years, Howard County has had imposed water bans! They are already taking about another one for next year, if we don't get more moisture!! Each year we received less and less rain fall. We are STILL in a deficet. According to the National Weather Bureau, we still need more moisture this Winter to make up for the 7" of no precipitation during '07.

If we do not get the anticipated amount of moisture this Winter, I don't even want to think about the predicament that the farmers will be in. We are already experiencing the lack of rainfall, which has affected our crops. We are currently experiencing the lack of crops due to our weather conditions in our local supermarkets. The price of vegetables, wheat & fruit have ALL risen in the last few months! Compare those prices to what you were paying at this time last year!!!

The bottom line is that our climate is changing! We are definitely getting warmer! Is this all due to global warming??? We could debate that topic, if you wish. In my humble opinion, we are definitely getting warmer, NOT colder! Therefore, I think my gardening zone definitely should reflect that. I do not feel that my zone is comparable to the North East. Their weather is colder and they receive much more precipitation. This was very evident in the last few days with several major snow storms, one after another. Yes, we received rain which was desperately needed, but we still need a lot more.

I too started out thinking I belonged in the Northeast, until I realized most everyone in the forum was from the New England States. Then I found new friends in the Mid-Atlantic region forum ... they're a hoot. I agree HollyAnn "that me & my plants seemed to have more in common with the Mid-Atlantic and have happily settled here.(No offense to the Northeast Forum)". I seem to remember from elementary school, about 100 years ago, that NY, NJ, PA, DE and MD are part of the Mid-Atlantic region. So stick with us CaptMicha, it's a great group ... beware of wrightie!

Mid Atlantic forum is a state of mind...... We'll use that when we make our t-shirts!!!!!!

Uh oh ... I guess I've rolled in at just the wright-time-y ...

Growing up in NYS, it was annoying to me to be from a "Mid-Atlantic State" when it felt like we were part of the NorthEast and New England ... The rest of the mid-atlantic just seemed to be part of the "deep south" to me. lol

When you go south and people become friendly, then you're in the South. First time I visited my sis in Florida, thought everybody already knew her at the restaurants. No, she said, people are just really nice here!

Heh heh ... are you sayin' they're not friendly up North?

I'm just sayin' .......friendly people above the South tend to keep it to themselves more. Maybe its that Suthern accent that makes them sound so dang friendly!

Wrightie, honey, having had the dubious distinction of living in certain areas of both MD and PA...those were some of the rudest plp I have ever encountered. I must say it was northern MD and western PA. Whew...all those friends you have in PA must live in the east!

I really wish the Sunset West zones were used as the standard instead of the USDA hardiness zones. No offense to the USDA, but the Sunset West zones look at a broader range of climate factors, such as: length of growing season, timing and amount of rainfall, winter lows, summer highs, and humidity.

http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/0,20633,845274,00.html

Hmmm, wonder if Dave could help us get that changed?!

See, doccat, that just proves that even "southners" can be rude (coming from the perspective of a New York Yankee - lol)...

Surely, y'all are joking....nevah, darling...

Are you in the North test #1- At the grocery store, make a casual remark to the guy loading the meat case 'Well, the old dinner dilemma again, what do I feel like making?' Reply in South- Oh I have the best recipe for _____ You will love it! In fact, come to my house tonight, we're having it........etc'
Reply in North " what?" 'hmm, well there's roast there .... and ... um... chicken over there.'


Back to zones- you just can't be that exact anyway. I wouldn't feel totally safe unless my item says goes to zone 6 at least, maybe 5. Hardy to Zone 7 you could lose it to a really bad year, wrong drainage etc...
I am trying out Amaryllis in the yard this winter. Should go to journal now to make notes.
(typing error)

This message was edited Dec 20, 2007 8:08 PM

Well, I'm suppose to be in 7b, but this is closer to 8 given the topography. Actually, I think we got it easy!

And Sallyg, you get the cookie, cause you got it in one! Southerner's are not only wonderful cooks they know how to make new friends with ease.......grin

Wow.

Tis ok, wrightie, I'm still willing to go dumpster divin with ya............evil grin How tall did you say you were? LOL

Well, coming from one that on a clear day on the highest spot in the county can see Canada.
"Home is where the heart is" and this is Home.

Love you all!

Chris.

You must be from International Falls, MN then...........LOL

Not that far Doc, but drink coffee made with Lake Erie water 5 days a week, at work. LOL

I went to college in Minnesota and have never been so cold in my life either before or since. Although I loved the scenery. Been smelt fishing in Lake Superior...what a hoot that was.........

Northeast seems like New England to me.

Baltimore is definitely Mid-Atlantic, so you're even south of that.

I'm glad taht old "Mason-Dixon" line thing doesn't work. I've never felt like a "southerner." I love visiting the sourth, but south is an attitude, like New England is an attitude. Mid-Atlantic? Well, it's somewhere in the mid!

Blessings on your garden,
Elf

Y'all ... We're all south of somewhere, some are just a little further south ... and talk funny :)

You have not been to New Jersey recently, then michaeljo? LOL Talk about talking funny......

Actually, I live basically almost right smack on the Mason Dixon Line. On the "North" side.

Shirley, you're like 10 minutes away from me!

I would dearly like to believe that I'm a 7b. It increases what I can grow so much...

But crazy things happen. One year the calla lilies I had survived the winter! So I didn't bother digging them up for storage but they never made it through the next winter :(

And things on the borderline that should of worked usually don't. Like my Celeste fig... I miss that one!

The Arbor Day map only says zone 7. Not b or a.

Oh! You guys want to hear something really weird?!

I came down stairs to see if I had any mail from when my mom brought it in. I had a package of some saplings from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Did I buy anything? No. Did I even contact them? No.

But I'm not complaining!

CaptMicha, I've got a couple of celestes that I'm growing in containers. They're only three or four years old, therefore not very large, but if I can figure out how to do so correctly, I'd be happy to send you a cutting if you like.

I'm supposedly in Zone 7a, but I prefer to think of this more like zone 6 ... With that said, there's a lot to be said for microclimates. Was your fig planted near any hardscaping or behind some Winter protection?

CaptMicha, I'm in Chevy Chase, supposedly zone 7a, but everything I plant that is 7a dies. We can get fairly wet winters, and I know that can be hard on perennials. But whatever the reason, I have concluded I am functionally 6b. In the same way, you may end up learning by trial and error what your microclimate is. But I wouldn't invest much on 7b plants all at once . . . . .

hmm ... does that mean I could be in zone 6a or even 5. Now I'm confused!

Michaeljo, when it comes to figuring out your local zone, it seems to be a matter of part USDA zone map + part trial & error + part chatting with the local nurserymen and farmers + part looking around at your particular patch of land and micro-climate. Any hardscaping (such as concrete, pavers, blacktop, brickwork, etc.) that you have will hold the heat very well; how many windbreaks do you have around your plants, etc. If you're inside the city limits, the temp's may be slightly higher than out in the countryside, etc. etc.

Did I just confuse matters even more?

doccat5,
New Jersey checking in here. Now what was that you said about how I talk? lol
michaeljo,
I find myself looking at both the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast forums but both seem to have participants either a little too far south or north to be a perfect fit plant wise. Maybe we should start a NJ and Pa forum? lol
As far as zones go, after finding your correct zone on the map just watch your own garden for clues on what to plant where. That is the fun part, to really get to know your garden. For example, I just realized that because of the way the road curves my front garden is more shaded in the winter so all my neighbors have the snow melt days earlier then I do. Both of them have winter pansies blooming well now and I have only a bloom or two in the back garden.

I've been considering splurging on a weather station system that will allow me to put temperature monitors in various spots in my yard so I can measure the various temperatures from indoors. I have wanted to do this for a while. Among other things, I want to know how cold my garage gets, since I store dormant plants in there. And we also store stuff in our attic, and I've wanted to know how hot and humid it gets in the summer. There is a huge range in price on the systems, though, and I've been stymied trying to decide which to splurge on. It definitely won't be the most expensive one, for which each "station" that measures the temperature is over $200. The less expensive ones are about one-tenth the price -- but may not be sufficiently reliable. Once I get it up and running, then I'll really know my zone and microclimates. They can connect to a computer, so you can keep track of historical data as well. They also can measure wind speed and rain fall, but I don't care about that. Installing a weather monitoring system (plus a decent drip irrigation system that I can install myself -- I'm planning on using http://www.dripworksusa.com/) are my goals for this year!

This message was edited Dec 26, 2007 2:29 PM

Happy, I'm impressed with your plans! DH bought this WS last year and we've been happy with it, but we don't use it in as "high tech" of a way as you have planned, so I'm not sure if it would be adequate for your needs or not. http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/9035/index.php I do know that he found it for a much better price than advertised on that site (approximately $60; amazon has it on sale right now for $55, btw).

My big aspirations for the year are to improve my landscape design in front & back. I need to get out there and draw up my gardens, then sit down and put a new plan in place... then start the new plants from seed.

Wrightie: You know me and my plans -- a lot of talk, not much action. Dripworks has been on the top of my list for years. I looked at LaCrosse -- that is one of the more reasonably priced WSs, but I read some complaints about its accuracy. The expensive one was Davis Instruments -- it looks great, but its price is way over the top. As I recall, Honeywell and Oregon Scientific were in the same class as LaCrosse. The LaCrosse didn't allow as many individual stations as I wanted. But each model had its own pros and cons. None was perfect. Then at some point I lost interest. Did you have any problem with yours?

LOL, if we had problems with it, I didn't even notice! I'm sorry, I'm not much use with this as I haven't relied on it for anything more than a basic tool for gauging the temp. and wind speed out back. With your property, I can imagine that you would have much more of a need for multiple stations as I'm sure that there would be significant variations depending upon elevations/locations.

A drip watering system would be heavenly during the dry months. I'll check out the site later -- one of these days I'd like to put together a rain barrel and/or grey water drip system. A girl can dream, eh?

Off to The Behnke to pick up some soil-less mix and get started with seed sowing...

happy, the link for dripworks.cm didn't work, is this link ot the same company?:
http://www.dripworksusa.com/

Oops -- thanks, Dragonfly -- I'll fix the link above. Typed too fast! I haven't checked recently, but they used to get very high marks on DG. They've been great with me on the phone.

My water bills was shockingly high this past season -- several times I forgot to turn off the drip hose. More importantly, I really feel strongly about not wasting water, so I need to put my money where my mouth is!

Getting an underground irrigation system didn't make sense for us. They are stunningly expensive, plus we move things around in the yard a lot, so I'd hate to feel stuck with any one particular design. And the DIY drip irrigation systems seem quite long-lasting.

I have read that many people who put in drip irrigation systems end up overwatering, so we'll need to be careful about that . . ..

This message was edited Dec 26, 2007 2:32 PM

Happy, I saw that you were talking about linking a drip system with a rain barrel so I tried to find something about doing that on their web page. I have a couple of rain barrels and have tried using soaker hoses with them but there wasn't enough pressure, do the drip systems need a lot of pressure for water flow?

Happy, have you considered adding a timer to your drip system? That would make it very easy to avoid overwatering.