Why I Oughta...

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 Springfield in the 2012 map to around Peoria in the 2023 map. The boundary betwe

Earlier this Spring, I received a few comments on a post from last year where I talked about after some hemming-and-hawing, I brought home and planted a special tree: a Japanese White Pine - Pinus Parviflora 'Glauca Nana' .  Below are a couple of them - that are similar:   "I saw this tree and I'm intrigued.  How is your's doing?" I replied back in the comments with my thoughts (more on that below), but I thought this might deserve a full post.  First....about the tree.  It has a siren call.  You can't NOT notice it amongst the pallets upon pallets of Arborvitae and Boxwoods.  And, I have to admit...I saw the exact same thing that the two commentors had - at the Big Box Orange nursery this Spring.  Here's the beauty that was calling me to bring it home from back in May: So, I won't waste time.  My tree didn't make it.  My Japanese White Pine - Glauca Nana - went brown in Winter and got worse as time went on.  When Spring came, it was crispy, ha