I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't welcome y'all to pay us a visit here in Chattanooga. Plenty of rural land around (I'm sitting on 20+ acres of mostly forested land, but there's plenty of wide open pastures as well), lots of pretty scenery (we were named Outdoor Living's #1 city to live in a few years ago), and some nice historical sites (Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Rock City, etc). Several big shopping centers (Northgate and Hamilton Place malls), and we're surrounded by mountains and high plateaus that mean we have fairly mild weather year round (almost all really bad weather, tornado bad, gets blocked by the mountains or worn out by the plaeau). As for warm weather, well this town virtually shuts down if the ground so much as turns white, so you can see how much snow we get. =)

Here's a photo of a winter veggie garden in Vancouver. I'm aware that Vancouver grows winter veggies for the homeless which is a good idea. This photo may give you a few ideas for winter gardening. Welcome to a world made for gardening fanatics. Cheers Here is a link that might be useful: Winter veggies in Vancouver

Instead of retiring in Elliot Lake back in Ontario, some gardeners retire on Saltspring Island, BC where they live and garden in a moderate climate. Some gardens are quite interesting and some gardeners plant or move things in full winter as seen on this image. Here is a link that might be useful: Winter move of garden tree

Ok, Jim, its finally time to go to your place. I want to see what you have done. I have nothing but time now. I will be in Rockport in two weeks and will stay a week or two, so please email me, and I will drive down to meet you. I can't wait to see your oleanders, I know you have been working on making the perfect oleander for down there. Have you created it yet? Did you loose any palm trees? We lost all our Cuban Royals, Alexander and Bottle palm trees. Russ, I lost all my daylies to rust about 3 years ago, it made me sick. I had to wait 3 years, replaced all the soil to make sure that there were no signs. I am starting again in October, I have a hugh order coming in from Maryott's Gardens. What do you use to control the rust. Everything that I have been told to get by Maryott's I am not able to find in Texas. I brought the rust to my garden, but ordering from a nursery that was not rust free. I think I will be ok, I will just order from Maryott's, I never had a problem when I ordered just from them. Barbra