This thread began as a means to discuss the issue of Sunset zones. The secondary motive was for me to try to explore the notion that elevation is a factor to RMG but not the only factor. Over the course of looking at climate data, I discovered that annual precipitation and the time of its occurrence may be a defining feature for the RMG region. Aridity cannot be the only determinate or wed all be over in the Southwest Gardening forum. Previous and somewhat naively, I had thought that these evergreen mountains here and there indicated that there were areas with rather high rainfall amounts - what hadn't quite sunk in was that while that is true, these areas were all at elevations where gardening becomes impossible. I began wondering if a particular native plant species was representative of the broad RMG region. I'm no expert on native plants so this was a fun exercise even if it doesn't appear to be absolutely successful (perhaps, an impossibility). It seemed to me that the Arrowleaf Balsamroot was most broadly representative. I'm hoping that other gardeners are giving this some thought and will comment. By way of encouragement, my question now is - what the heck is this plant whose image is used here on GardenWeb to represent Rocky Mountain Gardening: Steve

Sorry, I even thought about how to write that sentence and it still did not come out right! Between the wind and the plant. All of our wind comes from the Northwest. Poor little young plants just can't take that howling stuff. I don't mind toting straw bales as barley is pretty light (2 wire bales) I set them all in a stack after I am done with them and then they are ready to do duty again the next year. (after about 3-4 years the baling twine starts to rot so I rotate those bales into my mulch material.) Oat straw is heavier but we don't get much of that available here. Old rotten/moldy alfalfa is REALLY heavy and "PEEE EEEWWWW". I do grind bad bales up in my chipper/shredder to rototill the soil but it is a stinky yucky job. The protein is really good in ALfalfa (a legume) so it is a good soil amendement but IMHO it needs to be ground up or it is slow to compost.

Nothing fancy for the anytime frosts and snows. If she's expecting frost, she might throw old quilts/tarps over the tender things. Of course, the wind can undo the best-laid defense. A surprise frost (seems it was about the 18th or 24th of June) took out her first round of squash this year. She just replanted and got a load of big pumpkins and whatnot anyway. There's a wide variation in growing regions. Do you have an idea of what area you might choose to live? I grew up in Helena, and later moved to Darby (at the southern end of the Bitterroot Valley). In Helena, I mainly remember my mother's carrots and corn. After she died, I moved to Darby to live with the aunt I've been discussing above. The Bitterroot is kind of the "banana belt" of Montana (~5A, I believe). I think the Flathead region may be as well. In the Bitterroot, my aunt REALLY, REALLY gardened. When she moved east, she still had roughly the same elevation (~3,500') but not nearly as mild a climate (nor the water) and has had to adapt. My other Montana aunt lives outside Wisdom in the Big Hole Valley (~60 miles from Darby) but is at +6,000'. She basically expects frost any day of the year but still manages a few tomatoes in addition to her cool-season veggies. Inverted fish tanks make great cold frames :)

hollysprings- We all have different situations. I understand wht you are saying and we have thought this out clearly. Most important, our numbers do add up. We have had market evaluations done on our home and the going price for our home (today) as it stands, we most likely would go on the market for $710,000.00 (today). Comps in our neighborhood are current at 734k and 699k. It won't happen over night, but we feel it will sell (eventually)and would be thrilled to walk today for a 650K offer. We owe 350k, so yeah, we'd be in a better situation financially. We could reproduce pretty much the same house and have less than a 200k mortgage. Much more at our comfort level. I guess I should make myself more clear on using the word downsizing. I'm expecting to get all we want in this house we will still be around 3500+++. I do believe I have learned a lot as to where to put the bling and expensive upgrades this time around. We spent entirely too much money in our master bath. Some of our light fixtures are very, very expensive. We are so very fortunate that we GC'd successfully and have countless hours of sweatequity into our home. Our happiness, the way we live and our boys are such an incentive for this move. We really aren't that comfortable in our home or neighborhood. Basically we have upgraded, decked out, trimmed out to the hilt and back and it doesn't make us any the happier. We spend too much time cleaning and dusting chandeliers and worrying about dinks in the cherry woood. I have gone back to work part-time to make up the difference in the extra mortgage and we just rather not live like this. DH from the start wanted more land and less sub-division. Him and the boys can't race around on their "toys" quads and all. We figure if we can do this one more time, we'll have a much more enjoyable place for us, more casul, more woods for the boys to explore and less mortgage. Trust me, I have learned a good lesson on wants/needs and the cost of 4 different granites in my main floor alone. I agree that a smaller house can be much more expensive, after I didn't say "NO" to any extras this time around. Bottom line, just a simple family looking for a simpler forever home.