I don't understand why the, unique ! San Joaquin valley is included as part of the regional gardening fourm, of, "pacific coast gardening fourm" ??? There are a lot of difference's ???

Yeah, like 100 degrees...

I wouldn't classify San Joaquin valley as coastal.

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

Regional forums are created by member request and only when it has been pre-qualified with enough members having an interest to keep that forum relatively active.

I'm from San Joaquin County!! Hot and windy!!

😀

I know there are a few others from San Joaquin County. Definitely NOT coastal. Just about as non coastal as you can get. I say it's more desert than anything.

We're stuck in the Central Valley at least where I am in Tracy. farm country.

Growing area 9b where I am at. Lots of watering, if it's not from the heat, it's the desiccated wind, lol. You have to really check your plants to make sure that they don't wilt too bad.

I've been here 3 years. Grew up in Livermore. Pretty hot there too. But I make it work. But don't go a day without watering in my experience lol

Cheers to San Joaquin County!!

😀

Mindi

Not a big deal for me to be in the Pacific Coast Gardening Forum, and my area is San Joaquin County. I just try to educate and emphasize on my posts as needed my current growing conditions here which is way too different from those in the coastal side of California.

And that is why we indicate at least in a general way where our growing location is, so anyone who reads the posts will somewhat understand the micro climate differences here in California.

On our winter road trip, we traveled through the Central Valley of California quite a bit, and I was amazed at the differences between that and the coast. We typically roll down Highway 101/1 for the beautiful views and ocean air but this time we ran straight down I-5 until the weather warmed up (traveling in January, brrr). We ran into a very informative ranger at Colonel Allensworth SP near Delano and learned much about the Central Valley area - we were the only campers and the ranger was pretty chatty. California is huge to me - and I'm always amazed at the different micro-climates we encounter.

Regarding forums, I think anyone can ask for a new forum, and if enough other folks pipe up, away you go. An example for me is the Pacific Northwest forum. We were initially included in the Pacific Coast forum, but there is a very definite difference between coastal California and coastal Oregon/Washington/Canada. While I still lurk in the Pacific Coast forum, their growing patterns are just hugely different than the PNW. We also wanted to include our drier neighbors on the eastern side of the Cascade Mountains, even though their climate is much different than the coast side. That said, I've never noted any exclusionary issues from any forum - seems they are all welcoming and cordial.

I lived in the Central Valley until just 5 years ago. I think a new forum would be great but it would have to be a California Central Valley Forum, not just a San Joaquin forum.