Goodbye Zone 5b. Hello Zone 6a. December 2023
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...