Where you live?

[Durgan]

It sure helps when someone poses a question and their location is available.

How a question is answered depend considerably on the location of the garden.

May I suggest all posters put the location of their garden on their profile. Actually It would be nice if this was made mandatory.

My view!

[Missy]

For most people, it's right on the left under the date they joined. But others, for the sake on anonimity and web safety, prefer not to divulge their whereabouts.

I don't mind, it's in my sig

[Spirit Deer]

People do not have to list their specific location. I don't. But it's close enough for people to have an idea when questions arise or statements are made such as 'Here, it's raining" or 'We get a lot of snow here'. IMO that's just rude when people reading have no idea where 'here' is because a poster doesn't say where he or she is, but then starts posting about 'here'. IMO again, there's no reason someone can't list the state or province they live in, which is vague enough to protect their privacy but specific enough for others to have an idea how to answer their questions or make a correlation between their location and their 'here' statements.

Sorry for the mini-rant but it's a major peeve.

[Contrary Housewife]

You don't have to give your location, but for gardening questions you can give your Zone. Here's a chart to figure out yours:

National Gardening Association

This is very useful when discussing gardening, for example if you're having trouble growing something and we know your zone, we can make recommendations for things that do or do not grow well in your zone ( regardless of what State you are actually in).

Zones cover the whole continent, east to west, so they don't pinpoint a location, but rather a set of growing conditions. Also, since there are usually several growing zones per state, this more accurately identifies YOUR growing conditions and not those 100-500 miles from you.

[Ceashels]

I added my zone to my signature.

I don't think it's reasonable to make it mandatory for everyone who isn't interested in gardening though. It is however very helpful for those interested and asking/answering questions to have the information handy. Thanks for bringing up the topic, I hope others here will add the information as well.

[Spirit Deer]

Location information is helpful not just for gardening, but for lots of other discussions, too. I do hope a lot of people see this thread and add their locations somewhere, whether under their avatars or in their sigs.