Zone 10? Zone 10!

It's January in Jersey City and the temperatures haven't been above freezing in a week. The forecast is calling for a "clipper" tomorrow night to deposit 1 - 3 inches of snow by rush hour Friday morning. Between work, sunsets at 4:30pm, and the holidays, I haven't been to my plot in the Brunswick Community Garden for weeks. The last time Josh and I walked past was during the snowstorm in December. We didn't unlock the gate as the ground was already covered by several inches of snow. It seems that winter does still exist in the Northeast.

This has been my 4th winter in Zone 6A. This will also be my 4th year gardening. Before I moved here, I lived in 6B or 6A for the other 26 years of my life without ever paying much attention to the change in seasons. Now in my 30th year, my family and I are making the first preparations for our move to Zone 10. The gardening potential of Zone 10 has been at the forefront of my mind since we began discussing a move to Los Angeles. Every free moment at my desk has been spent searching for gardening tips and wisdom from the far reaches of the zone map. My seed catalog musings have begun to include items like "Ornamental Cacti Mix" and "Yucca." Lemon, Orange, even Banana are options. Today I discovered David King's blog LA Garden as a helpful resource. I've learned that short day onions will grow best in my new locale.

As my boyfriend Josh, our two cats Mao Mao and Cha Cha, and I plan out the details of our journey, I will be marking up my Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog for items that I think might thrive in our drier, warmer, TROPICAL new home.

For those of you who follow my other blog, SURPRISE! We're moving! Details to follow.