Virginia writes:
“I have used milk jugs & anything else with a lid to make a wall of heat retaining water for over 40 years!! I know people are just getting back to nature or homesteading so a lot of these OLD ideas are being treated as new, it’s just funny to me.   Â
The water method has worked for me in the mountains of Tennessee during winter, in Oregon during snow, and now in 29 Palms, Ca. {desert} where I just bought a house…”
One of my favorite things about writing Push the Zone: The Good Guide to Growing Tropical Plants Beyond the Tropics was discovering the zone-pushing methods of the past. Smudge pots in Florida, for instance; or the large walls used to hold in heat so peaches could be grown inside of Paris back in the 1600s.
In the book I combine both “new” ideas with the wisdom of the past, then mix it all together with humor and some crazy ideas that only a truly mad gardener would try.
In yesterday’s video, I harvest our little patch of turmeric and mention how easy it is to push the zone with both turmeric and ginger:
Don’t let the cold defeat you. If you want to grow something tropical but don’t have the climate, chances are you can pull it off with a little ingenuity.