When was younger I used to wonder why people lived in northerly places like my home in Michigan. Other places were warm more of the year and winter here seemed long, -too long for the young and restless. California beckoned. Now that I'm older and a wise guy, I can see that other places have their short comings, too. Summers here are mostly very pleasant and some years it doesn't get over 90°F or under 10°F. Droughts here are two or three weeks without rain, spring and fall are generally nice, -long sleeves or light jackets. We don't have giant wildfires followed by mudslides, or earthquakes, and just an occasionally a tornado. The water is high, so we could have some flooding this spring, but still, only smaller scale events. Our watermelons here, where 6b extends about as far north as anywhere, are the size of ladies' bowling balls, but that's what Mississippi is for. We don't even have to go down there to get 'um. United Fruit sends us bananas every day of the year, so we don't have monkeys and snakes crawling all over the place either.
Bluegrass, Hosta, and many other plants are easy here and have a long season, along with lots of tropicals we grow as annuals. Our soils are pretty neutral so we can amend them down to 6.0 pH without a lot of work in a hole big enough to grow nice suburb-size Azaleas and Rhododendrons and I've been lucky in the homes I've owned to be blessed with a sandy loam, twice. Living in the suburbs means no deer, too, and fewer rabbits, the great enemies of great gardens.
I used to go to Florida for a couple weeks in winter, but I have a small greenhouse now stuffed with bonsai that I play with almost everyday. It's a toss-up whether I don't go south any more because it's problematic leaving my plants to someone else's watering regime, or I don't feel the need when I'm busy doing what I like. I'm older and slower and winter is more like a welcome break from yard work, almost a vacation.
Anyway, I feel for
@DirtMechanic and you others struggling with harsher conditions. I don't envy any of what other people have, and wouldn't trade straight-across with anyone. I'm the luckiest guy in the world.
