A recently updated map by the government is sending many of America’s gardeners online, researching the latest plants they can cultivate in their warm regions.
It’s known as”the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ” plant hardiness zone map,” and it’s the standard national for gardeners and farmers to determine which plants are likely to withstand the harshest winter temperatures at their place.
This week, the map received the first updated in over 10 years and the future for a lot of gardens appears more pleasant. The 2023 map is 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the map from 2012 across the entire contiguous U.S., says Chris Daly Director of the PRISM Climate Group at Oregon State University which collaborated on the map along with the USDA.
Daly claims that the new map signifies that around half of the country has moved into a new zone while the other half hasn’t. In some areas there are areas where people are able to grow different varieties of fruits, flowers vegetables and plants.
Gardeners across the country aren’t shocked at the new trend.
“I have been saying throughout the year, “This requires updating’,” !’,””, says Megan London, a gardening consultant from Hot Springs, Arkansas, in a video she shared on Facebook. London is a gardener for more than 26 years and has noticed her area warming.
In the updated map, London’s area in central Arkansas has been moved from zone 7b, to the zone 8. What this means for London is that she’s contemplating growing mandarin oranges and shampoo ginger, which is a tropical plant.
However, London states that the enthusiasm she and her fellow gardeners experience to plant new plants is also tempered by a second worry about climate change that is caused by humans.
“We’re exuberant but in our heads, there’s slightly sceptical,” London says. “In the background of our thoughts we think”oh, that’s a sign that things are heating up. What do these mean over the long term?”
The scientific community is unanimously in agreement that human consumption of fossil fuels such as oil gas, and coal is the major cause of global warming. The summer of 2023 was the hottest meteorological summer on record for the northern hemisphere, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Daly admits that he’s hesitant to attribute specific changes in the map from 2012 in the 2023 map to climate change due to the fluctuation of the main data they used to make the map. They were creating maps of “the most cold winter night each year for the last three decades”, Daly says, and it’s a highly fluctuating number.
An email from the spokesperson for the USDA states that “Changes to the zones for plant hardiness are not always indicative of global climate changes due to the highly fluctuating characteristics of temperatures that are extreme throughout during the entire year.”
However, Daly claims that, in the larger picture climate change plays part in changing the areas of growth across the US: “Over the long time, we can expect to see a gradual shifting of the northward direction of the zones as climate change begins to take control.”
However, for gardeners like Rachel Patterson, in Port St. Joe, Florida the latest USDA map of warming area is a good thing even if it’s not encouraging. “It makes me feel as if I’m not a liar,” she says.
Patterson relocated to her new home in the past two years to help with rebuilding following a storm. She now garden with her toddler and a wheelbarrow, and has experienced the effects of climate change on the Florida garden community.
“The adorable little grandmothers are devastated, they are unable to grow their tomatoes.” she says “It’s way hotter and the tomatoes are burning.”
Patterson has helped her community adapt to the temperatures by planting kinds of tomatoes which are more resistant to the fungi that can grow faster in warmer climates..
She claims that the new map serves as a reminder of the need to take action on climate: “It’s just going to continue to get warmer. The government needs to adopt policy changes to slow the pace of climate change.”
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