Why I Oughta...

There I was, minding my own business as a tourist walking around Dublin when I came across a large municipal sidewalk planter that looked different.  It was tall and round and didn't have flowers in it.  \ Instead, it held a dwarf ginkgo tree.  Full, round-in-habit and leafy.  See below for a couple photos: I have (now) three Spring Grove (dwarf) Ginkgos planted in the ground.  A look at their hardiness rating and it shows they're hardy down to Zone 3 .  The rule-of-thumb is that you can (likely) over-Winter a tree in a container if it is able to go a zone below your actual zone.   We're in 6A.  This is hardy down to Zone 3.   It *might* work. 

My entire gardening life, I've been a Zone 5B gardener.  That means that my gardens have all lived in the USDA Zone 5b.  Just search for [Zone 5b] here on my blog and hundreds of posts will show up.  And, I suppose that I never considered that the maps change over time.  But..but...but...they DO!  They change.  In fact, they change every ten-or-so years and the USDA just (a couple of weeks ago) released their latest maps - the 2023 map.  The last time they released a map was 2012.   What's different in this new map?  Well, for me:  A LOT.  I'm in a whole new zone.  So long, Zone 5b.  Hello Zone 6a.   Dr. Trent Ford - The University of Illinois State Climatologist has a good explainer post up  and talks about how the 5b/6a changes have taken place: The boundary between zones 5b and 6a, representing an average annual extreme minimum temperature of -10°F, migrated 60 to 70 miles north, from around Springfi...