Gardnerzone4--I experimented with non-pruning this past year and got some funny results. I had a couple of HT's that had very little die back over last winter, so I did minimal pruning. I started the spring with plants around the 4 or 5 foot mark. I ended up with a couple of beasts. Blue Girl grows upright for me, and continued upright, to about the 9 foot mark by the end of the year. Yes she was big & impressive, but 80% of her blooms were over my head (and I'm 6') for most of the summer. This coming spring I'll take her back down to a more reasonable level. She looks downright silly next to her younger siblings. Garden Party grows outward--into a more rounded & full shape. By the end of summer, it was about 6 feet wide and 7 feet tall. It looked like it would reach out & grab small children as they walked by & we started calling her Audrey. I loved the way it looked--a big, fat globe of a bush with beatiful fat, smelly roses. Where I live, I think it depends on the growth habit of the rose & the amount of winter kill. I prune mainly to shape and to take off dead pieces, but I imagine things are much different in Chiswell Green than where I live. I have a friend in that region of England and she says it's much milder there in the winter than here in Central IL.

There is a radio garden program from California, Farmer Fred. He has a blog and web site and radio program as I mentioned. Why I mention him to you Ukulele Lady is that he has had a program on fruit tasting recently ANd figs in particular I didn't know there where so many figs in existence. If you put Farmer Fred on your internet yu might be able to find the program Was interesting reading and his show is very good. Did you pick your name, by chance form a Bette Middler song called Ukulele lady. Is one of my favourite songs. I am in Ontario as well Barrie. ANd have an unheated garage I do keep my chrysanthemums in there and some other things that will overwinter Some things do make it in there and others do not Dahlias and Canna lily for sure do not I always plan every fall to put the big pots in there and make an enclosure within the garage to maybe give a few more degrees of warmth but never get around to doing so.

I build things, and I am planting groundcovers, trees and shrubs so they don't totally fry trying to establish in summer. I am in San Jose, zone 15-also without rain but all winter long. I have been nursing my frost-hit citrus tree babies, and I am still harvesting raspberries from these crazy Italian bred ever-bearers! I built lovely wood cages to support these berries, five foot long rectangular boxes with cross members to support the canes, and stuck some finials on top of the uprights. Also filled out the under planting of alpine strawberries. I am making a grape arbor next weekend to span my driveway. I am installing solar powered light strings to give nighttime enjoyment- this garden is surrounding the kitchen door entry yard where all friends and neighbors sneak in to help us eat dinner, so I may as well make it pretty :) I am planting apple trees in a cordon along the driveway- opposite the berries- and considering chamomile and creeping thyme to carpet the ground- it's all wood chips from previous owner and I have to go slow as I want to install some stone pavers but only can afford two at a time . I am trying to make the garden areas look established and formal, my house turns 100 this year and is in a very visible urban neighborhood on a busy street so I can't have a tangle of dead tomatoes or blue tarp shade structure showing . My potager surrounds my driveway and side entrance and is very visible from the street. Hundreds of people walk by daily and I gotta show off! Anyhow, that's my winter, happy to read of others actions for more inspiration! Pea

Turning 60 last summer definitely put me in a very pensive frame of mind. I'm still struggling with questions of what defines me, how will I transition from a job I've loved but which is now winding down (at least I'm winding down emotionally but still attached) and now with the time schedule of when can we move down to the retirement home that gives us so much joy we want to retire every Sunday when we have to leave and come back to reality ;). And most of all I'm facing the shock of realizing that what I've always considered a physical gift was really a sneaky time bomb. All my life I've been naturally slim; weight simply has never been anything I worry or think about. I weigh within 10 pounds of what I did when I was 17....and so I let myself drift along through the decades airily assuming that meant I was healthy and I certainly didn't need to get physical exercise. After all, I wasn't trying to lose weight so why bother? And now here I am sixty years old, terribly out of shape, not particularly interested or craving any kind of exercise and terrified that I'll soon be facing what others have mentioned: getting older and having my body give out on me. I know I have to get moving and yet it's feeling impossible. I hate having to squeeze in exercise by giving up sleep in the morning. I just can't face trying to break my day in the middle by going to the campus health center and sweating then coming back to the office. At the end of the day I cannot make myself go exercise, I'm tired and just want to relax.Weekends are for lounging around in paradise, not forcing myself to go run or walk or god forbid find a gym in the Florida Keys instead of enjoying the sunshine. Not sure why I'm so blocked but I have to find something physical that I like or at least can stand doing, that I can do regularly and that will keep me fit and healthy. Still trying to figure out what that is and then JUST DO IT.