Sorry for my long absence folks. I got sidetracked on 2 projects: house painting and flowery annuals. The warm weather was distracting too. My neighbor's side yard is doing much better now. About 6 weeks ago, with his blessing, I planted tall fescue there. It was Rebels brand. Wow, I like Rebels Tall Fescue. It's somewhat velvety to the touch; it feels smooth when you touch it, kind of like Kentucky Bluegrass, and it even looks a bit like Bluegrass. The bag of Turf-Type Tall Fescue was a blend of the following: 44% Rebel Advance Tall Fescue 29% Rebel IV Tall Fescue 24% Rebel Xtreme Tall Fescue 0.75% other crop seed 1.5% inert matter 0.05% weed seed No noxious weed seed found.

The Netherlands. Where I live, in nature, these conifers grow well (regenerate naturally): - All Pacific NW species - Picea abies - Picea omorika - Picea glauca - Scots pine - Austrian pine - Corsican pine is tricky, but regenerates till here and there) - Abies alba - Abies grandis - Quercus rubra - Prunus serotina - Fagus sylvatica - Quercus robur etc. all do well. - Figs are tried, but die in colder winters. The climate is very mild for the norhern lattitude but not ass mild as in the UK or western USA. The coldest wintermonths (records) are like a normal one in Calgary (-7.0 C as average). The wamrest summermonth ever had 22 C as an average temp. normally that is the average daytime max of the warmest month. Tropical night (minimum 20 C or more) have never been recorded since 1997 on my weatherstation. In summer, the nights are 12 C on average. Frost ends in may and starts in october. Snowfall are very varied. Some winters will have 90% snowcover, no snow has never been recorded but exceptionally some winters will have only a day or two with snowcover. What might be the biggest problem is that cold winters are really bonedry, with a lot of sun and prolonged periods below zero. A last example: in some months the temperature simply never gets above zero.Very exceptional but it happens....and those months can have no precipitation and lots of sun... So that is how it is, I tried to focus on what might kill the tree hence the extremes. Thx a lot for your info!

Jaemy, Definitely, if you want to keep the plants in pots & out of the ground you will have to protect them by bringing them indoors or ... On the other hand, if you get any snow cover at all - ignore the catalogues & their zone recommendations. Often the information is old & out of date. In older publications the zones were based on where the grasses were growing at the time - not on any good studies like the one done in Minnesota & also not based on gardeners experiences. When I was gardening in a Zone 5 garden with very poor winter snow cover, I was able to grow over 100 different varieties of grasses. Many of the grasses that I grew had previously been listed as zone 6 or 7 plants! Now I am gardening in a zone 3 (headging 4) with temps well below -20F (-30C). I have been pleased to discover that many of my grasses do just as well up here, if not better! the only down side is that they do not bloom as early. So ... if your potted Miscanthus survive the winter 'downstairs' you might consider dividing them & trying a couple of divisions in the ground. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Ginny, it is never too early or too late to learn something new, especially when it comes to gardening, growing edibles is an investment in our health. I am very careful about not wasting anything that the garden produces and is fun to try the many different recipes that you can come up with the harvests, tomatoes are always the main stars of the garden. It is so easy to make sauces and put them in the freezer, the oven dried tomatoes are good as decorations in a dish or a salad. I just made a chili with some saved roasted tomatoes from the past season. In the meantime I am growing the tomato seedlings to be planted soon. Hi Amber! I am so glad that the tomatoes are doing well for you, I am trying new varieties this season, beefsteaks and cherries are my favorite and the most versatile in recipes. My atemoyas and sugar apples are ripening in the garden and my dogs are letting me know when to pick the guavas. When I was a child, I was in charge of making some kind of guava sweet that I had to stir in a giant copper pot, since I don't have that I made them in a double boiler and it came out so good! The stuff that they sell in stores doesn't even come close to it.:) And soon, I will have persimmons....plus it is time to plant squash, beans, cucumbers and plan for the cold weather veggies. Silvia