I believe I'm going to get the trees but I will go with the potting them up and storing them in my unheated garage until spring. I store my fig plants in there as well but I cover them up so I will wrap the paw paw trees with two layers of grafting tape (paraflim). Also I have two large thick foam like planting pots, which might help a little with the insulation factor on the root area. If needed I can wrap insulation around the whole pot. I won't fill the pot to the top so I can add about 2 inches of mulch over the soil. The pots are 14 inches across the top and taper down to 10 inches at the bottom. They are 13 inches deep (inside measurement). My only concern is getting these tree out of the pots come spring with out doing damage to the roots. The other trees I planted I just cut through the thin plastic pots they came in with shears and never bothered the root ball whatsoever. These being in a sort of thick foam container I won't be able nor do I want to cut them up because they belong to wifey. They are the decorative type. What type soil do you recommend I store these bare root trees in? Lou

This is a subject that I have put a lot of thought into as well. I wonder if you could use the inverted pole with some sort of guard above the box that would keep snakes and raccoons from accessing it. I even bought a pulley to try out some ideas. I don't intend to put a bluebird box up that way this season, just playing around with ideas. I hope someone has information about experience with this sort of thing. It may be impossible, but it is worth researching.

Donna, I forget where you are located. Be glad you are seeing activity at the nestbox! It sounds like they are very interested. Maybe the female is still deciding on her mate, or maybe the other male is a youngster from last year who has not yet found a nest site (or not yet chased off by the parents). Then again, maybe there is more activity going on than you realize, when you are not looking. Most activity will be in the morning hours, and it depends on the weather for when they begin nestbuilding (warmer, dry weather). Just the fact that he keeps going to the nestbox encouraging her, is encouraging. Check the nestbox occasionally too, to see if there is any building going on. Stay tuned! BlueBars

Put up a wren guard after the first egg is laid in your chickadee/bluebird/whatever nest. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just enough to obscure the view of the nest box entrance from the wrens. I make mine out of cardboard and duct tape. Take it down when the chicks are 7-10 days old. In 5 years of having chicakdees and/or bluebirds nest in my yard, with plenty of wrens around, never a problem.