As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
When I was a child, there was some land owned by a relative of ours which consistantly escaped frost and would usually be at least 2 weeks later as a kill zone than the rest of the farms in the region. People were dumbfounded over this and it still is something bizarre as it seems nothing different, but it is infact different in the most subtle of ways.
This farm is situated about 1/2 mile to the east of one of the highest points of land there. 1/2 mile further east is a secondary water drainage in a natural flood path. The land to the northwest as a slight depression moving water that direction. To the north is a slight rise, and to the south is a slight decline.
By comparisson where I was raised, the farmstead is on a slight elevation point and a water drainage lies a quarter of a mile south of the place. To the east the land is flat. The north the land pools in water to that point being slightly rising, and to the east is a like flow of water that pools and if were high enough would run off.
In essence this is an elevated point where water or cold air pools and does not flow, so being high and exposed and the air does not move, it freezes and frosts there readily.
The secret to the late frosted land of my relative was in that slight slope on which is was midway in a part of, and the draining of air or pooling of it away from that farm to lower areas. Looking at it, it would not seem the least important, but the geographic effect of that small farm actually would by atmospheric drainage keep it from freezing.
With some sheltering trees and irrigation it probably would be the perfect place for an orchard or potatoe farm.
Orchards are more than atmospheric drainage, for they are water drainage too, as much as soil. A farm which might grow wonderful melons, might produce dismal fruit in being too sandy, and requiring too much water, as much as soils which are heavy clay which flood the trees out.
Atmospheric drainage is important, and people used to consider it a great deal, as "there was death" in the air was a common complaint of early settlers. Some areas in river and swamp locations people dropped like flies after a few weeks.
It is a mystery of the lay of the land, as much as the rules of you do not build a snow or earthen shelter with a lower level in them, as cold settles there and it is a death trap.
The same is for trying to build a shelter on top of a hill or in the bottom in extreme heat, as it will bake or fry you alive.
Time and again, the very best locations for homes and farms are on the gentle slopes of a hill, protected by a prevailing wind, and having a lowland location to pool that cold air in most seasons, and to be exposed enough for air flow to keep it from scorching in the summer.
The east to south east exposure is the premium place, as western exposures are too hot in afternoon sun, the southern warms too readily for blossom or temperature extreme, and the north is simply too cold and delaying in growing seasons.
agtG
