Fruit Trees and Berries that Grow Best in Your Area Naturally

Hi, thanks for this very promising thread. I like that you have expanded the climate zones. However, I'm not sure your expansion works for extremely hot-summer areas of the southwest, such as Southern Arizona and Nevada. We have weeks of 100+ F in the summer. Plants that can grow in other USDA zone 9a dry places will often not stand our summer sun.

Southern Arizona is - Winter Zone 9a (USDA) - Summer Zone 10 (AHS Heat Zone) - Sunset Zone 12.
USDA zones are about winter cold-proof, but in southern Arizona we need to be concerned about summer heat-proof too. This blog post explains it perfectly:
http://thetransplantedgardener.com/index.php/2018/06/01/portland-ore-shares-our-low-desert-zone/
And here's the Sunset zone: https://www.sunset.com/garden/climate-zones/sunset-climate-zones-arizona


And my Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone is: BSh - Hot Semi-Arid Climate (from https://www.plantmaps.com)

Your classification is "How cold is the winter?" and "How much rainfall?" but you need another question: "How brutal is the summer heat and sun?"

Kat Zeeberg wrote:Hi, thanks for this very promising thread. I like that you have expanded the climate zones. However, I'm not sure your expansion works for extremely hot-summer areas of the southwest, such as Southern Arizona and Nevada. We have weeks of 100+ F in the summer. Plants that can grow in other USDA zone 9a dry places will often not stand our summer sun.

Southern Arizona is - Winter Zone 9a (USDA) - Summer Zone 10 (AHS Heat Zone) - Sunset Zone 12.
USDA zones are about winter cold-proof, but in southern Arizona we need to be concerned about summer heat-proof too. This blog post explains it perfectly:
http://thetransplantedgardener.com/index.php/2018/06/01/portland-ore-shares-our-low-desert-zone/
And here's the Sunset zone: https://www.sunset.com/garden/climate-zones/sunset-climate-zones-arizona

And my Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone is: BSh - Hot Semi-Arid Climate (from https://www.plantmaps.com)

Your classification is "How cold is the winter?" and "How much rainfall?" but you need another question: "How brutal is the summer heat and sun?"

The heat zones are great information, but I think if I included that information, it might would require 100 different specific zones or more and possibly cover very small regions, some with possibly very low population.

By having the current threads for each general climate and hardiness zone, it should connect people in very similar areas who's climates should be close enough for it to be grown like others have in that same climate and hardiness zone. It won't be perfect, but it should be very close!

If people have listed their location and they are near you, then that could give you some really great information too!

There are also some really great threads here on Permies if you haven't already seen them, on how to create microclimates that help slightly lower or raise the temperature in an area! I'm going to try to find some and list them below, and if anyone else knows of some and can list them below I think that would be awesome!

Kat Zeeberg wrote:Hi, thanks for this very promising thread. I like that you have expanded the climate zones. However, I'm not sure your expansion works for extremely hot-summer areas of the southwest, such as Southern Arizona and Nevada. We have weeks of 100+ F in the summer. Plants that can grow in other USDA zone 9a dry places will often not stand our summer sun.
Southern Arizona is - Winter Zone 9a (USDA) - Summer Zone 10 (AHS Heat Zone) - Sunset Zone 12.
USDA zones are about winter cold-proof, but in southern Arizona we need to be concerned about summer heat-proof too. This blog post explains it perfectly:
http://thetransplantedgardener.com/index.php/2018/06/01/portland-ore-shares-our-low-desert-zone/
And here's the Sunset zone: https://www.sunset.com/garden/climate-zones/sunset-climate-zones-arizona

And my Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone is: BSh - Hot Semi-Arid Climate (from https://www.plantmaps.com)
Your classification is "How cold is the winter?" and "How much rainfall?" but you need another question: "How brutal is the summer heat and sun?"

Thanks for the very interesting links, Kat. The transplanted gardener link is especially good. With our climate warming, we may indeed have to take into consideration what happens to a plant that is under such brutally hot climate, especially when the rains are not merciful. I take it you cannot grow rhubarb or snap peas...