DryStoneGarden

Plants, Stone, California Landscapes

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USDA Zone Change

The USDA just put out a new zone hardiness map. It’s the first new map since 1990 and they made quite a few changes. Large chunks of the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Berkeley, and our garden here in Richmond, have been changed from zone 9b to 10a, and the 9a areas inland are now 9b. I don’t know how big a deal this is — I mostly use the Sunset zones (which will also be changing in the next edition) — but it is the reference number that orients me to the rest of the gardening world and I even had it written on my blog’s About page.

2 Responses to “USDA Zone Change”

  1. January 26th, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    Town Mouse says:

    That’s really interesting! Well, since there is no global warming, they must have kept bad records for the first round.

    Of course, I also use the Sunset zones, the USDA zones are really not nuanced enough.

  2. January 27th, 2012 at 3:01 pm

    Scott Weber says:

    Isn’t that amazing…I realized that my little neighborhood is in a warm micro-climate all its own within Portland…so I’m actually 9a…which seems so strange. Then again, I don’t even come close to pushing the boundaries of hardiness in my garden…so it’s hardly an issue for me šŸ™‚

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