About half of the country moved into a slightly warmer zone in the Agriculture Department’s new “plant hardiness” map, an important guide for gardeners. Climate change may be a factor.
Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made official what Mr. Reeves and countless other gardeners and horticulturists have known for some time: Americans are adapting to warming weather, right in their backyards.
Some zone changes reflected how data was collected, he said, which included the use of more weather stations and increasingly sophisticated mapping methods, right down to the ZIP code.
Among other uses, the plant hardiness map has applications in commercial agriculture and is used by the department’s Risk Management Agency to set some crop insurance standards.
But gardeners are its most frequent users, and for good reason: They need to know which zone they’re in because winter temperatures will play a major role in determining which perennials will survive to spring, which ones should be taken inside and which ones should not be planted in the first place.
Jason D. Lanier, an extension specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said the shift in the map, while minor compared with the one a decade ago, reflects longer and larger changes.
If gardeners want to push their limits on new zones a little bit, he added, they should do so in the spring and early summer, and give the plants a chance to take root before winter.
The original article contains 792 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made official what Mr. Reeves and countless other gardeners and horticulturists have known for some time: Americans are adapting to warming weather, right in their backyards.
Some zone changes reflected how data was collected, he said, which included the use of more weather stations and increasingly sophisticated mapping methods, right down to the ZIP code.
Among other uses, the plant hardiness map has applications in commercial agriculture and is used by the department’s Risk Management Agency to set some crop insurance standards.
But gardeners are its most frequent users, and for good reason: They need to know which zone they’re in because winter temperatures will play a major role in determining which perennials will survive to spring, which ones should be taken inside and which ones should not be planted in the first place.
Jason D. Lanier, an extension specialist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said the shift in the map, while minor compared with the one a decade ago, reflects longer and larger changes.
If gardeners want to push their limits on new zones a little bit, he added, they should do so in the spring and early summer, and give the plants a chance to take root before winter.
The original article contains 792 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!