Hi Sandy, This arch of climbers were the only ones I protected this way. I have 5 other arches/trellis structures that I just didn't have the time to protect this way. Those I took the canes down (carefully and with gloves!) and laid them down on the ground, putting pine straw over them. I don't have to worry about them this winter, since there is so much snow to blanket them. They are somewhere lost in the snow. Last year there wasn't enough snow cover and many of the climbers had to be cut right to the ground. I am always amazed at how fast they rebound, and how much growth they can make up in one short summer. I do have some winter-hardy ramblers like Violette and Baltimore Belle, and climbers like Quadra and William Baffin that just laugh at the cold....but I also have a fondness for marginally hardy climbers that I am obligated to protect every winter. The arch in question is covered with a double thickness of burlap, and secured with twine. That arch is in an area that gets a lot of very cold wind but the climbers on it (New Dawn & Rosarium Uetersen) always come through with little damage. Celeste

Long day. Its finally stopped about 11PM. 12" here, and probably very close to that at National Airport. Still lots of wind and blowing and drifting, but the skies are now clear. Yesterday, up until about 4am it was a "warm storm" with temps around 32. Its been below 20F since about 8am here. The snow held and held and held on for longer than expected. This was definitely the storm of a lifetime, EVEN IF we had not had the 2 feet here last weekend, just the sheer conditions this storm produced, especially the whiteouts, and the near hurricane force winds along with 4-6 foot drifts, countless downed trees...etc. etc. etc. was a once in a lifetime event here in the Mid Atlantic. However, since we did have 2 feet on the ground already, it was just all the more historic. TZ7, Be safe! I hope you guys dont get it as bad as we did here, especially in terms of the winds. Many of our streets look like the photos you posted, and some were with downed traffic signals. Post more pics if you can! Suffice it to say, all of my palms, including the large trachy in the pot wrapped in plactic and xmas lights, are buried. The in ground palms were buried as of last saturday, and now they are under 3 feet. My smaller trachy unfortunately had spear pull, although that may be more attributed to the fact I left the xmas lights on it one day when we hit 49, and the palm cooked to well over 100F im sure. It somewhat dessicated after that, and has not looked good since. I think these storms just pushed it over the edge. Well see if I cant get it to come back. Ok Im going to bed. Ill post more photos tomorrow. Night all! Be safe.

I paid just over $4 this year for propane, but closer to $3 last year (Amerigas owns my tank). There is no chance I will ever get natural gas. My electric is running about $0.10 right now, but could get as high as $0.12 during the summer. I would love to go off propane totally. The Lennox guy said I should upgrade to a 5 Ton XP25 if I want to go off propane for better heating (which he recommended). I would also have to run a 220V line over to my furnace for the heat strips, which he said would be about $1,000. His quote was for $11.8k with the heat pump, air handler, coil, etc. installed. That doesn't include the $1k rebate, or the cost for the electrical wiring. I asked the Carrier dealer about going full electric, and he didn't recommend it with the propane already there. I did get a quote for a Trane system, but the dealer had very poor reviews online and their system was $15k for an XC95m and XL20i heat pump.

How nice to see this evolve as a thread. It is very interesting to keep an eye on the data for your specific garden, and the bigger picture. Peter is right that over watering can be a huge issue. I did that, and lost plants. My garden was almost without topsoil, and the holes I made to plant things became "clay buckets" for the rain. Things are much better now. At my closest weather station (KIAD) while the data does show moderate drought ('D0' linked above), the rain deficit data isn't too crazy for the most part (NWS LINK for IAD precipitation PDF) when looked at annually. However at the month level it is quite varied. I'm sure at the week level it is likely even more varied. What I'm thinking is maybe younger plants mostly exist at the week or month level, and in the absence of rain gently adding a little water (e.g. 5 centiliters, or 1/4 cup) every 3 days will might them going until they are more mature, or the rain comes back. These days having recreated the topsoil, I'm mostly thinking about coping with the variabilities, ensuring great root systems to cope with and store a larger precipitation event when it comes.