Ideally, if you had a flower bed or some spare "dig-able" ground you could just dig holes about the size of each pot and sink the pot into the ground, up to the rim. Fill in the gap between the sides of the hole and the side of the pot with loose soil. As extra precaution, once it gets cold mound leaves or peat moss over that, and then ensure it gets good snow cover throughout winter (just pile snow when you shovel the walk.) Ideally, a dry area on the north side of the house would be ideal (one where the snow doesn't really melt or the sun doesn't heat too much in winter.) If, however, there is absolutely no place to dig, perennials have been sometime know to overwinter in, say, an unheated garage or unheated shed. But, this is more risky as even in these places it still might get too cold for the roots of the hostas. This method worked for my smargd cedar and mini cattail plant, but not for my delphinium. Another idea, if you have a crawl space, spare fridge, or cool basement maybe you could store them there? Ideally 2 to 4C would be great. I would keep them mostly on the dry side, however, but check on them occasionally. Glen

As to the garbage can idea---if you have it exposed to the sun at all, it's going to heat up. (Think how a car sitting the sun will heat up in the winter.) You don't want that. I'm familiar with zone 6 weather, having lived & gardened there for many years, so I have some idea of what you're dealing with...that is, you need to keep the soil cold when you get those weather warm-ups in mid-winter. i.e., the idea behind the insulation is to keep the heat out and the cold in the pots, to moderate the inevitable wide swings in temperature. (Think 'ice chest'.) If the pots are not in the sun, then the insulation board on top of the pots is prolly going to be sufficient. If the pots get any am't of sun OR are close to a bldg., then you need to think about keep the whole shebang cold. Naturally, you would place the insulation barrier around the pots after it's turned cold, really cold. About the wood tops idea...an inch of wood has an R-value of less than 1.5...compared to R-5 for an inch of XPS (the pink stuff) and R-8 for ISO (the foil faced yellow stuff). So, although wood is an insulator, there are better choices. Of course, you could glue XPS to the wood if you want to. Oh yeh, the pink stuff, XPS, will hold up to the elements much better than the foil faced ISO--it's yellow underneath the foil and is much more brittle than XPS. Also, the R-value of ISO degrades to where it's only marginally better than XPS.

I know summer is still in full swing, but I know I'll forget to ask later on. So while I still remember and have time, I wanted to know if anyone stored used potting soil in a root pouch/smart pots on a fire escape over winter. I would like to reuse the soil and from reading online here and elsewhere most people seem to leave the soil in the container used outside. The problem is I used unglazed terra cotta containers which I know I'll have to store indoors to prevent damage from the cold. Since I planned to purchase a root pouch/smart pot to use next year, I figured I could purchase one now, store the soil in it and have it ready for use come spring. My questions are: If using a root pouch/smart pot, did you cover the top from the elements or do anything in particular to keep pests out? Is it possible to add used coffee grounds/mulch/etc to the soil to compost over winter in these conditions? Is it advised in this case or foolhardy because of potential vermin and pests? Anything in particular to know or consider? Thanks.

My thought was that over wintering pots in sheds or garages needed to have some air circulation in order to prevent fungus/mold growth. Maybe the thing is that when the pots are frozen, it doesn't matter then? But come early spring---before growth even starts---the box should be removed? The reason I am asking this is that I have found that smaller sized pots (say 5-6 inch size) dry out too much in the unheated shed or garage. I have heard of putting a snowball or ice cubes on the pots in winter, but I also have read "never water your frozen pots." Isn't snow or ice cubes similar to watering hostas and could contribute to crown rot?