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I am hoping to extend my growing season by one to two weeks, have warmer mornings and/or evenings, and eliminate late spring frost potential so I can have a more successful garden this year. After another brutal winter and troughing pattern, I expect a similar spring as last year in regards to late spring frost potentials. I have been reading about microclimates and gardeners who use them to their advantage. I'd like to know of anyone who has sucessfully created one (and how) or used one in their yard to their advantage.
Hard to say without a photo, but a low tree that allows the sun angle to shine in, or an overhead structure, with netting usually works. Raised beds and mounding helps raise soil temperatures, and planting heat loving plants against a wall for extra heat.
I don't bother here with tender plants, until the second week of summer, when the risk of frost has passed. They quickly make up for lost time.
Then there's a greenhouse -the ultimate micro-climate.
From my experience, tender plants can be placed under evergreen trees, like olive trees for example (which don't grow in Detroit I guess! ) This prevent frosts produced by thermal inversions (the most common ones in my region, with calm winds and clear sky).
The sky above the plants is completely covered by the tree's fronds, and this acts as a giant blanket and it protects them from both extreme cold and heat. Even sun lovers plants, deserctic plants etc, actually grow very well in the partial shade of the trees, they're always green and healthy even in the mid of a dry hot summer.
Don't put tender plants in the centre of an open field or in large empty spaces. Hedges all around the garden are useful but the presence of many trees and shrubs works better.
My warmest part of my yard is against the mostly white wall of a garage that faces south. On the south side is a low hedge that slows down the wind. I grow my vegetables in raised beds and have a large hot compost heap in the center of the yard that I rotate with additions of grass clippings every other day to keep the heat going. I maintain over 20 yards, so have a source of grass clippings and leaves to keep a compost heap going and with heat as high as 150º in the core. That section of my yard is its own micro climate, much warmer then the rest of my yard. I think it is because it is enclosed with a 3 foot high border on its south side and a fence and the garage on the north side. It gets full east to west exposure but for the 3 foot high hedge on the west and a gate on the east. I think it is a combination of factors for this yard. Same can be done for some fruit trees, putting the same tree on a sunny side of a house as another on the cool side can make one bloom earlier and fruit earlier and the other later.
i'd say a good micro-climate would be a courtyard. i live in north florida and Phoenix roebelenii (pygmy palms) don't grow that well here. my neighbor's pygmy palm is way out in the middle of his yard and it always goes brown by february (due to the rare frost that comes 1-2 times a year in my area). my pygmy palm on the other hand is still lush and green and i do absolutely nothing to it. (no blankets etc.) just the location of it in my small 15 by 25 foot courtyard is enough to prevent most of the cold weather from affecting it... so i'd say a courtyard (protected by the walls of your house on at least 3 sides) can offer at least a 2-3 degree boost compared to the rest of your yard and helps protect against frost. now obviously being up north in the dead of winter 15° and a brisk wind isn't going to let you grow a tropical garden but it could extend your growing season by a few weeks or even bump you up a hardiness zone, (say from 6a to 6b in that small area)...
i'd say a good micro-climate would be a courtyard. i live in north florida and Phoenix roebelenii (pygmy palms) don't grow that well here. my neighbor's pygmy palm is way out in the middle of his yard and it always goes brown by february (due to the rare frost that comes 1-2 times a year in my area). my pygmy palm on the other hand is still lush and green and i do absolutely nothing to it. (no blankets etc.) just the location of it in my small 15 by 25 foot courtyard is enough to prevent most of the cold weather from affecting it.
Interesting about the roebelenii. I think of them as half hardy. Not able to stand up to hard frosts in the open, but able to come through moderate frost unscathed. It could be that your warmer climate, means that frost is more of a shock to them, compared to here where lower temperatures and more frequent frost better prepare them.
How cold do your temperatures get in an average winter?
Interesting about the roebelenii. I think of them as half hardy. Not able to stand up to hard frosts in the open, but able to come through moderate frost unscathed. It could be that your warmer climate, means that frost is more of a shock to them, compared to here where lower temperatures and more frequent frost better prepare them.
How cold do your temperatures get in an average winter?
well if you go by the average in my area in Dec,Jan,Feb is 18C/65F high and 7C/45F low but that doesn't really explain the climate well. its highly dynamic due to more of a continental influence. most of the time its 21C+/70F+ for an average day but about once a week a cold front comes with storms and the next day is much colder, can be as cold as 10C/50F with a low near 0C/32F. (happens about twice a year, speaking of which the next one is tomorrow )... a few days later it is back to 21C/70F. i used to have a coconut palm in my backyard that survived quite a few years (and a few light frosts) but it died ...it didn't always used to be this way, people have told me that decades ago (long before i moved here) frosts were a lot less frequent (once every 3-4 years) but now the cold fronts reach further south and we get hit every year now. what i thought was fascinating to read was that back in the 1800's there was a native colony of Roystonea regia (royal palms) in my area but one of the famous winter storms (Great blizzard of 1899?) wiped the remaining enclave from the river basin. now you don't see any royal palms until to get to the Tampa/Melbourne area and probably only see true native ones in the everglades at this point... anyway sorry for derailing a bit!
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) This prevent frosts produced by thermal inversions (the most common ones in my region, with calm winds and clear sky). 
)... a few days later it is back to 21C/70F. i used to have a coconut palm in my backyard that survived quite a few years (and a few light frosts) but it died 
