While flipping through the Burpee seed catalogue, my wife came across the chart of frost-free dates.

She realized that the longstanding cutoff in autumn has shifted from September 15, where it was when we moved into the house and no doubt forever before that, to October 15 now. We’ve picked up an additional month of garden harvest that way.

But that’s not all.

The spring date has shifted from May 15 to April 15, meaning we can plant everything a month earlier.

Think of it – our growing season is now two months longer, allowing us to consider a much wider variety of varieties to choose among.

It’s one more piece of evidence for those who have scoffed at the scientific predictions from the mid-’60s on. And, in the bigger picture, it’s scary.