Northeners: Anyone else Zone Pushing ths Year?

Catherine+twin · March 23, 2015

Well, I'm not a northerner, but I live at 7200 feet on a mountain side, so I'm still in zone 5/6, and with our cool summer nights and temperate summer days we may have a 24 hour average over 70 F for about a week in June. I remember being told the tomato plants shouldn't even be set out until the average temp was over 70, when I first started gardening mfffm years ago. Yeah, that's not happening.

So I'm zone-pushing just by planting a heat-loving plant like a tomato in the first place.

OTOH, I have gotten frozen the last two years by late frosts, so I'm in no rush. When I bought this house 30 years ago, I could count on snow cover in the shadow of the house from Thanksgiving until the end of February. I haven't seen that in several years now, or much rain in the summer, but as a couple of other have mentioned, the spring frosts have stretched out later.

Catherine

March 23, 2015	#11
Catherine+twin Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jul 2014 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 34	Well, I'm not a northerner, but I live at 7200 feet on a mountain side, so I'm still in zone 5/6, and with our cool summer nights and temperate summer days we may have a 24 hour average over 70 F for about a week in June. I remember being told the tomato plants shouldn't even be set out until the average temp was over 70, when I first started gardening mfffm years ago. Yeah, that's not happening. So I'm zone-pushing just by planting a heat-loving plant like a tomato in the first place. OTOH, I have gotten frozen the last two years by late frosts, so I'm in no rush. When I bought this house 30 years ago, I could count on snow cover in the shadow of the house from Thanksgiving until the end of February. I haven't seen that in several years now, or much rain in the summer, but as a couple of other have mentioned, the spring frosts have stretched out later. Catherine