GinaY86441 said:Hi JBarstool!
1). Hey, thanks my fellow gardener! I appreciate the kudos!
2). 9a at 3500' elevation in an arid desert. What's your 9a like?
3). Hahahahahaha.... have you seen the produce they grow in Alaska!!
Happy gardening, Mr. Barstool! 
I gardened in Boise Idaho for a couple of pleasant years - a 7a (that too was fiction) high-mountain-desert zone. I quite liked it.
Here, 9a is temperate, not quite Mediterranean. Sea level. Hot, dry summers, short and mostly moderate winters. Coldest winter reading this year (one night) in January was 29, but boy did we get a lot of rain this winter...and have now gone from the summer-like 90's last week to winter-like upper 50's and more rain. Unheard of in June. My tomatoes are not happy.
