Q. You suggested buying a waterproof, battery-operated recording maximum minimum thermometer for about $15. I’m having trouble locating what you’re talking about. Taylor instruments recording maximum and minimum thermometer. A. I suggested buying a recording maximum/minimum thermometer and placing it in your gardening area so that you could track temperatures during the late summer, fall, winter and spring. This thermometer, combined with a weather app on your phone, makes a powerful and inexpensive combination that predicts the future weather and weather that already passed. Use this information to determine tree fruit losses and the best time to prepare the soil for planting either cool or warm season vegetables.             Placing it as close as possible to the gardening area helps you decide the low temperatures you received during the night. Watching these low temperatures tells you how cold your microclimate got in your backyard so you can accurately compare yours to other microclimates.             Look for manufacturers with well-known names in the weather or instrument categories such as Taylor and AcuRite. Make sure the thermometer records minimum and maximum temperatures over a time period such as 10 days. Accuweather and the National Weather Service are popular phone apps.