In nature as it rains doesn't that help 'wash' the nutrients into the ground as the ground cover breaks down. WIth compost it isn't exactly like nature as you don't even have it around the plants you want to amend yet so you are 'losing' some of its potency by letting it get rained on. I cover mine but I base that on recommendation by Charles Wilber (How to Grow World Record Tomatoes) who grew almost 1400 pounds of tomatoes from 4 plants using compost. He advised covering so the nutrients aren't leached away. He also can use his compost sparingly. Now this is not the greatest analogy but if you take some purchased organic fertilizer and pile it on ground, if planning on using later do you want it rained on or do you want it covered? The nutrients in manure that you may add to the pile can be 'leached' away too. Having said that I don't have all my piles covered--I just don't have that many tarps. But my 'special' , fussed over, and carefully prepared compost is covered. I also like the 'heat' generated with a covered pile. PLus maybe you all don't have the type of rains that we get in the rainy season--letting rain on your compost may be just adding the needed moisture necessary for your pile. SO I guess it depends how often and how much rain you are talking about. I guess the only way to know for sure would be to get a compost test (similar to soil test) done on covered and uncovered pile.

Oh, I hear this -- my husband HATES vinegar. And all forms of pickles. I, on the other hand, can't go a day without something pickled! Last week, I had a batch of dill pickles go bad. (I think I overfilled the jars.) Four quarts bubbled over and spilled stinky garlicy vinegary brine - spoiled, no less - on the garage floor. (Thank heavens they were in the garage.) Well, I scrubbed the garage floor, dumped the cukes out in a trash bag, and tossed it in the large city-provided trash bin that we keep in the garage. The smell inside that bin after about two hours forced it outside to the driveway where it has been brewing all week. I had to agree to take out all the trash this week because he couldn't even lift the lid without turning green. He said it was his "worst nightmare come true." Trash day is tomorrow. Cathy, making another batch of dills while DH is out on his bicycle

I'm coming late to this party, so please excuse what might appear to be "butting in." I have struggled w/Bloomstruck for nearly 5 years in my zone 5B CT garden. Only one of several of them has finally performed this past summer and it was a stunner. It's in a very protected spot (by accident) that has a source of natural moisture: practically ideal conditions. Even with all of that, I have concluded that this particular plant just takes a very long time to get established. And if the summer isn't a good one, chances of a rebloom cycle are practically nil. My Endless Summer Twist 'n' Shout is the best of the lot. Blushing Bride is almost flowerless most of the time even after a benign winter. They removed it at Coastal Maine Botanical Garden because of that. But Twist 'n' Shout always comes through for a rebloom cycle. The other one that is extremely dependable for me that is not a rebloomer is 'Lady in Red.' I don't wrap or protect in any way except to spray for deer and even after a brutal Polar Vortex winter, she has always flowered. In fact, she is one of the genetic lines for 'Bloomstruck'. The other line of rebloomers that have blown me away this past season are the 'Tuff Stuff' options. Smaller plants, vigorous, and dependable. But you are right to go with the 'Invincibelle' line. They are foolproof since they flower on new wood. Can't go wrong there. Plus over time they will form a nice colony and some of mine have self sowed around the garden. And I watch the birds over the winter pick through the seed heads. Lots to love about them.

Chandra, With the frost blanket, they should be labeled when you buy them and the label should say whether it gives you 2-4 degrees of protection or 8 degrees or whatever. The row cover that I have that gives 8 degees of protection is heavier and thicker and looks more like a white sheet because you can't really see the detail of plants beneath it. The row cover that I have that gives 2-4 degrees of protection is more lightweight and more sheer and it is easy to see details of plants beneath it. If you have the lighter weight type of row cover that gives less protection, the next time a cold night threatens, you can put down two layers instead of one and it will give your plants more protection. A single layer of the lightweight row cover that gives 2 to 4 degrees of protection has kept tender, warm-season plants from freezing in fall even when the overnight low dipped much lower than expected and I thought the row cover wouldn't provide adequate protection. I have a lot of the lightweight row cover and use it frequently. I have much less of the heavyweight and only use it on very cold nights. Jay, I can't even get the thermometers in our yard to agree with one another, and all of them are mounted at about the same height and all of them are in the shade. Often, we'll see a 1 to 4 degree variation in the temperature they're reporting. Our local NWS Co-operative Observer is only a couple of miles NW of us but on slightly higher land so while his weather reports are similar to ours, they aren't always the same. The OKMesonet Station at Burneyville is maybe 7 miles NW of us as the crow flies, but a lot further by road, and sits at a lower elevation. It often goes a bit colder than we do at night, and we're often 2 to 5 degrees warmer than it during the day So far, in the years that I've really paid close attention to the weather, it seems that the weather data from the Gainesville Airport is usuallly closest to what we actually see here at our house. It still isn't too bad here this morning, but heavily overcast and currently 45 degrees which seems incredibly cold compared to the 85-90 degrees we had earlier in the week. I hope all the little grasshoppers are shivering out there in the cold. Dawn