Forget 'weather' and instead think 'climate'. All herbs originated from Somewhere, and once you know where Somewhere is, you can find out what the prevailing climate is Somewhere. Hence, you can find out just what conditions each herb prefers, and you can do your best to emulate those conditions. For example, from your list: Lemongrass is native mainly to South Asia. Climate in South Asia is tropical or nearly so. Tropical climate means hot and humid all year round, with frequent (often daily) heavy rain. Rain runs off quickly except in monsoonal seasons where flooding can occur. From that, you can deduce the following: lemongrass likes the heat - that means HEAT. It likes a lot of water, but prefers that water to drain away quickly. You can also deduce that: it doesn't take kindly to frost, and may not survive a severe winter. It may need to be brought indoors if you want to keep it alive, but it must have plenty of water. From the fact that it's called lemonGRASS, you can deduce that it likes plenty of sunlight, and that it can be cut down heavily and still grow. Cut, grow, cut, grow. You can research the rest of the herbs on your list in the same way to learn what is likely to do well where you live, and what won't without special care. Obviously, outside its preferred climate, a plant won't behave it quite the same way as 'at home'. It could grow more slowly; it might die extremes of weather (too hot or too cold); its growth might be stunted. Etc. Take a look, while you're researching, at the temperatures the plant prefers to germinate from seed. That will tell you a lot, too. If it lives at high altitudes, it's probably accustomed to cooler temps, and its seeds might like refrigerating or freezing (stratifying) before they'll germinate. So - botany and geography can't really be separated, when it comes to plants! I live in the subtropics, so most plant will grow here all year round, and do very well, But I can't grow things like French Tarragon or Meadowsweet, and coriander is a winter-only crop, because even in shade the temperatures here are just too hot for them. The link below is a good starting point for finding out the native habitat of a lot of herbs. The URL below is a good site for learning about the kinds of conditions herbs require (including in many cases, temperatures). http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/D_search.html Here is a link that might be useful: herbs and spices

The white cedar single stains described in this thread are mostly applied by dipping the shingles in stain at the factory which provides the best protection. Weatherwash is a brand of interior furniture stain that can be used on exterior wood with a protective coating of Weatherwash's Exterior Water Sealer. That seems like additional expense for less protection.

A week ago we were sweltering in temperatures over 90 degrees and 100% humidity. Which probably doesn't sound so bad to those of you from the south, but up here in New England, where most houses don't have central air conditioning and were built to keep the heat in, not out, it was miserable. But the past week, the humidity's been lower, the nights have cooled off to the low 60s and high 50s and I feel like a human being again. Even the apparent non-stop rain doesn't bother me any more.

We got rain here, too! Not a whole lot, but at least it's something. A bit overnight, and then heavy showers this morning. It's clearing out now but forecasted for later today, too...we'll see... I really wish I would have slit open the 4 big peat bales I bought but honestly I didn't think it would actually rain -- much more often than not the forecast is wrong lately. So now I will be spending all afternoon wetting peat in a big wheelbarrow, or at least until my wrists give out. Opening up the bales to the rain would have helped somewhat, at least. Oh well. "The only reason I put more trees to the south end of my yard is for screening purporses." Yep, same here for me except it's down by the road. I live on a dirt road, but it's a main county road so there's more traffic than I expected when I moved here, even moreso the last couple years because they opened up some recreational trails not too far away.