Interesting resurrected archival thread. I'm coming to the conclusion that, at least in my neck of the woods, one way to easily avoid SVB damage is to wait them out. We have two generations in the spring, and the last one is allegedly gone by July. So can one plant then and get a harvest? Around here the answer is *absolutely*. That's worked great for me last year when SVBs devastated my spring squash. I harvested lots in early December, and I plan to do that again this year. But whether it works for you will depend on your last SVB date (consult your extension service), the time required to get ripe fruit, and the expected date of first frost. Might not pan out in a cold climate. In this regard, acorn squash may be the way to go.

You can wait till you get the first light frost and either cut them back to about six inches and mulch heavily with at least 6-12 inches of material/dig up and pot up to grow on inside over the winter and re-plant in the spring/dig up and place whole plant in a cold, but not freezing shed/garage/basement/crawl space and bring back out about Feb. and pot up till re-growth starts and then re-plant in the ground/cut off all leaves, build a fenced enclosure around stalk and fill to the top with leaves or other insulating material and wrap fence in plastic or a tarp. Place a bucket on top to keep water out of the top of the banana. Un-cover when it begins to warm up in your area. (do not do this below TN as you may fry your plants on warm, sunny days. Leave the plastic off. There...take your pick! ;-)

Too funny,Cady! Extra outhouses and seats not far from your butt, especially. Good input. I like the clear view notion and night lighting. I have a lot of older clients, including some of the first wave of babyboomers - planning gardens for their grandchildren, but usually with little thought to their own future needs. I just took out my front yard and picket fence/New England cottage-style garden and replaced with lower-maintenance trees, shrubs, conifers, tough perennials, groundcovers, bulbs, and boulders/rocks; it will be mulched til' the groundcovers fill in. Did this partially because of decreased time in the garden b/c of my business, and partially in thinking of the not so far future. G.

I got my seeds December 13 but I was in a self-imposed exile from the boards at the time (mandated extra hours of work, and GardenWeb forum browsing is a real time-sponge for me :-]), so although I did email Sue that I received them, now that I am done with work I wanted to post my heartfelt thanks to all who checked my list and their stashes for matches, and particularly shimla, poisondartfrog, remy, etravia, flowergardenlady, linda0210, and kandituft who have reduced my wish list, and especially susiek who not only helped reduce my wish list but hosted this great swap and restored my faith in big swaps :-). Getting that package in the mail was a big mood-lifter! I have ramped up milk jug collecting (planning a trip to the recycling center to swipe some from there) and bought 200 pounds of soil from Wal-Mart. Thanks again to everybody. Susie, ya done good. :-) Terri/rofLoL ;-)