Others beside myself may be somewhat geographically challenged.

When I look at the Regional Garden headings: Mid-South, MidWest, Northeast, Northern, Ohio River Valley, Pacific Coast, Pacific Northwest, Southwest it is not clear to me which states are included in each group.

Is there some way that the headings or perhaps the first sticky in each could indicate this?

Looking online for 'US map divided into regions' yielded things like this:

FDIC's version of regions: http://blogs.creditcards.com/2008/03/credit-card-fdic-debt-delinquency.php

Drug threat regions: http://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs11/18862/appenda.htm

So I tried the key words 'US gardening regions map' and found lots of sites who want to sell me magazine subscriptions (National Geographic, Better Homes and Gardens, and good old Sunset), but they weren't giving away examples of a map of the regions.

Yeah, that Southeast Region covers a lot of territory and wouldn't help me a bit because things that grow in many of those areas wouldn't grow in Southeast Florida. But when I google for Florida Regional Garden Map, I get these: https://www.google.com/search?...
These work better for me:

http://www.garden.org/regional...

http://www.plantmaps.com/inter...

I think if you're in the region, you know it.

Most people consider Texas to be in the southwest, but really, my part of Texas is more in the south.

I wouldn't mind having more clarity to the regions represented on our forums here. I can never remember what the "Ohio River Valley" represents and have to google it every time.

LOL, I found this when googling for Florida climate zones ... it has changed since 1960 but I'm still in zone 9.

http://www.garden.bsewall.com/...

greene said:Others beside myself may be somewhat geographically challenged.

Yes -- like whoever put Kentucky in the "Great Lakes" region !!

@plantladylin, that map at http://www.garden.org/regional... makes a lot more sense.

I found a post in the Midwest Forum that states: " is intended for information regarding areas where people have called themselves "the MidWest". This includes MN, WI, the Dakota's, WY, MT, IL, IN, IA, and so many states in "middle" America". That's pretty clear.

There is a Northeast Forum and a Northern Forum, neither had a sticky so I have to guess which states those are.
Same for Pacific Northwest and Pacific Coast.

The 'regions' here on ATP may not work for everyone, but it's not for me to say who is right or wrong; all I am asking is if each ATP region could please identify which states or parts of states are included in their particular group.

Guess what I am trying to say is like this: if someone hosted a party and said everyone was invited and welcomed to attend, it would not mean that everyone would fit in or find the party enjoyable - heck, they may even be dressed wrong for the occasion. So, even though these regional forums are open to everyone, they might be more meaningful to people who fit the region. As for knowing where one fits in, that doesn't apply to people who will be relocating to a new area and trying to get advance knowledge of the garden challenges and benefits of the new area.

I'm inclined to agree with greene, if only because I just had to do some research to figure out which regional forum to recommend to a new member. Heh, guess I'm "geographically challenged" too.

Perhaps there could be a general description included in either the main forum list or when one first opens the forum? I don't think any one forum is cut-in-stone about their boundaries, but it would likely be helpful for newcomers or, as Woofie noted, when making recommendations to others. I can see how it might be confusing to those unfamiliar with the regional weather patterns (e.g., Pacific NW is much wetter and cooler than Pacific Coast). And, to tell the truth, I have no real idea where my own forum (Pacific NW) begins and ends. I suppose BC-Washington-Oregon, but how far east does it go? Idaho & Alberta? And north up to Alaska? Parts of northern California? It's a bit hard to pin down precisely, and I've noted that those who live in the confluence of regions will often participate in two or more regional forums.

I noticed in the All Things Plants forum, there is a bubble to the right when one first opens the forum that describes it. Could we simply add one of those to each of the geographical forums? If so, I would suggest folks using regional forums have a discussion what their perceived boundaries are so no one is felt snubbed. I'm willing to see if I can get agreement on what constitutes the Pacific NW forum.

That sounds like a good idea, Deb! And I see someone has done just that for the Midwest Gardening forum.

I love the idea of having that description for each forum.

The moderator(s) of each forum have the access to change what's displayed in that info box. In the case of forums that don't have a moderator, I would need to do it.

I've added geographic information to the Pacific Coast Gardening Forum.

Kansas doesn't seem to have a place in our regional forums. We have fallen into the great divide!
I like how the Weather Channel groups the states, placing us in the category "Great Plains".
There are quite a few Missouri/Oklahoma/Kansas gardeners who are active on ATP.
I'm not saying a regional forum for us is necessary, since we tend to go to the forum for whichever plant is currently blooming.

Hi Zuzu

>> I've added geographic information to the Pacific Coast Gardening Forum.

>> Coastal Oregon, Washington, and California, although members from Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, and the Pacific Asian countries (and anywhere else) are also welcome.

Do you get much message traffic about Oregon, Washington and Alaska? Even before we got our own "PNW" forum, I thought that the Pacific Coast forum was "mostly coastal California". I'm just curious, not asking you to un-invite northerners.

I think of the PNW forum as coastal Oregon, Washington, British Columbia (adele) and Alaska. It would include coastal Yukon if we had any members there. Basically, "west of the mountains and far enough north to have cool summers".

We do have posts from people "on the dry side of the mountains" and up in the clouds, but their climate is almost as different from the PNW as southern California's.

Hey, @RickCorey you're not paying attention! Deb started a thread regarding defining the PNW area over here.
The thread "Where is the Pacific Northwest ??" in Pacific Northwest Gardening forum

Rick, the Pacific Coast Gardening Forum started out as the California Living Cubit. When the gardening-related threads from that cubit were imported to ATP, the name Pacific Coast Gardening was chosen rather than California Gardening.

The Pacific Coast Gardening Forum on ATP originally was supposed to cover all of California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Hawaii, Japan, and other Pacific Asian countries, as well as most of Mexico and Alaska. Most of the threads and the active members, however, were from the original California Living Cubit and it therefore looked as though the Californians were monopolizing the forum. For that reason, the Pacific Northwest Gardening Forum was created, thereby causing a considerable amount of territorial overlapping.

I didn't know that it came over from Cubits. That explains why it had such a large, active CA membership from the beginning. Thanks, Zuzu.

I found it frustrating to go there and read about people growing things outdoors while I was wondering whether it was too soon to start some petunias indoors. Warm-winter-envy!

At least so far, it doesn't feel as if overlapping has caused too many problems. There must be some optimum balance between "splitting" and "lumping" where each forum has enough traffic to stay interesting, and also enough focus to be interesting.

I would look in the Pacific Coast forum if I was looking for advice about the sun burning my plants. Don't laugh, I do see the sun, sometimes! Pretty often, in the summer!

Thanks, Woofie, I finally stumbled on that thread.

BTW, someone mentioned somewhere the idea of little maps for each regional forum, showing their primary areas of focus. If one regional map was posted on the splash page of each forum, overlaps would not even be noticeable.

FYI, the PNW forum now has an introduction, created collaboratively by several active members. I would encourage folks or moderators from other regional forums to do the same. I think it is helpful both for folks looking for a place to hang out, and to better understand where your area is (e.g., I have no clue what areas the Northern forum covers). Thanks @Greene for broaching this subject!

Thank you @Bonehead and thanks to everyone.

The truth is that this all started quite simply because I received an interesting item in an email and wanted to share it with the folks in Idaho. Being geographically challenged I couldn't figure out in which forum to make the post. From reading various threads on ATP it appears that Idahoans (sp?) didn't even know where they fit. It crossed my mind that many new ATP members might also not know were they fit and could be missing good information from experienced local folks with similar growing conditions.

Thanks to everyone for helping to make ATP the best it can be!

I'm all for adding a few states that border Texas and/or have similar climates. I'm thinking New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana. Parts of Mexico also have similar climates.