As someone who has plenty of ostrich ferns in zone 4, northern Minnesota, with new babies cropping up continuously - plant it or sink the pot outdoors now. This is the time of year they're starting to yellow and get ready to die back for the season, so expect that with yours. They're perfectly hardy down to -50 degrees Fahrenheit which is probably somewhere in, I don't know, zone 2? And the fastest way to do it in is to treat it as a houseplant and kill it with kindness.

difficult question. If your first frosts are weeks away and the soil is still warm I ouls move it now.

I agree with Annie on the interchangeable part....but I prefer hubbard to butternut. There really are lots of varieties of winter squash....all of them with subtle differences. I find acorn stringy, butternut a little dense, some delicata a little watery, hubbard HUGE and sometimes stringy, Marina del chioggia has a bit of a smokey taste....and I am still searching for the elusive galleux....said to be the sweetest and most delectable. And it must be, a friend gave me one and I left it outside for a bit as a fall decoration and the critters ate it up!! In spite of stringy, watery etc...I love all winter squashes!!

I might be wrong about this, but I think the goal with overwintering potted hostas is to keep them out of the sun. So I would put the pots in a shaded location. Colder and darker is better I think. Plastic pots that won't break. I had several on the screened porch last year (NNE facing). That kept them dry, and they were shaded. And I've overwintered in the unheated garage. I'll have pots in both locations this year because I just didn't get around to planting them in the summer. C'est la vie - I'm only human. But wet newspaper and plastic bags would be great if you're indeed going to have them out of the ground short-term - like if you can dig them up, transport them to the new home, and stick 'em in the ground fairly quickly. (Or - if you want to throw them on the driveway for a while!)