This is the first year that I've tried insulating a bin. I took my simple round wire bin, and surrounded it with another fence that left about 16-18" between the 2. I then filled the space between with unshredded leaves. Piled some more on top of the pile. I didn't have enough fence to completely surround the pile, so one quarter of the outside is insulated with just stacked paper bags of leaves. I have found that the bags don't make perfect contact, however, so they admit a bit of cold air etc to the pile. I tried filling those spaces with trash firewood and unshredded leaves with some success. This pile was seeded with composting worms, and I wanted them to stay active this winter. Unfortunately my experiment was thwarted by the extremely warm weather earlier on. We are back to typical weather for this time of year, however, so maybe I'll get to see the results. Another pile that I made on Thanksgiving was covered with just a few paper leaf bags (no leaves in them). These seem to repel enough cold water that would cool off the pile, and to limit exchange of the air with colder outside air to actually provide some insulating value (or to allow the outer layers of leaves in the actual pile to act as insulators). Very simple, and as I said- not given a really hard test this winter yet. Pile is still cranking hot. I would (personally) stick with paper bags versus plastic. They provide some protection without completely going anaerobic (whether you care for aerobic piles or not- they do generate their own heat).

The "Florida Prince" variety of peach tree sets fruit, but my tree is still so small that the chickens jump up and eat all the fruit - usually the day before I want to pick it. It does go completely dormant and looks dead for about a month during the winter, so don't take it out while it is "dead". ( I almost did! ) One of my neighbors in the next camp over has a red apple tree that fruits every year. He doesn't know what type it is, but he gave me a seedling so in several years, we will know if it breeds true or not. I had several horseradish plants in a pot that just languished and did nothing for a year. I wanted to put something else in the pot and stuck the horseradish in the ground where it is now doing well. The asparagus is growing well, but it doesn't seem to want to make spears at the same time. If you want to eat one or two spears a week, then plant asparagus. I suppose I could freeze the spears, but now I just use the asparagus greens in my cut flower arrangements. Roses love it here, but the beetles eat the leaves terribly. I put Sevin dust in a shaker can and dust the roses whenever there's more holes than leaves. Same with the grapes. Iris (flags) don't seem to do well at all. I've tried wisteria and clemantis, but haven't gotten any to survive long enough to find out where they want to grow. Nasturiums thriving and reseeding all over the place. Green beans grow well but will die off after one "season" of harvest. Lima beans will last for several years of harvest. Indeterminate small fruited tomatoes (cherry, Roma, etc.) do real well and last for several seasons. Collard greens grow exceptionally well and will last for several years. Also other assorted greens do well. Sometimes the small green caterpillars attack the leaves, but the plant will usually survive.

It seems like all regulars suffering from the winter blues syndrome and wants to vent....:-) Let me chime in as well. It looks like we have an abnormaly cold winter this year, but I think we all were simply spoiled by previous abnormaly warm winters and forgot how to define our zones. In my case (z6b) it's 0 to -5F and we had only two nights (so far) down to -2, while the vast majority of 'cold' nights was in low single digits and day temps rarely broke down below 10F. So, technicaly this winter still fits in 6b definition and so far I have no reason to worry about upcoming summer blooms. Yes, I know that H.aspera villosa and Little Honey most likely will not bloom, but rest should be OK. As far as my experience tells me, bread-and-butter macs and most of serratas could take -5/7F (-20C) for a short period of time if they are completely dormant and not in a wind exposed locations. Freeze-and-thaw (actualy in reverse order, thaw-and-freeze) cycles in spring are a major killer of flower buds that start breaking dormancy. Therefore, while living all my hydrangeas unprotected for a whole winter I use some burlap wraping in spring if forecast says that below 0 is coming.

Hi, thanks for the reply -- here is my list of the roses I've ordered (it's a lot!!). Asked the question because I noticed after I ordered them that some say zone 6. I'd like to keep them in the ground if possible, with mulch, etc. Any help on any of these -- how to help them, will be appreciated. Thanks! And my list: Autumn Splendor Baby Austin Baby Boomer Bambino Cal Poly Celebrate Life Charlie Brown Chasin Rainbows Cinderella Climbing Kristin Doris Bennett Double Take Electric Lady First Impression Iced Raspberry In Memory Julie Link Little Pinkie Live Wire Love and Peace No Worries Old Glory Overnight Scentsation Pacesetter Peach Delight Pinstripe RalphÂs Creeper Red Minimo Renny Ruby Princess Sachet Scentsational Southern Delight Sweet Fairy Sweet Sue Tiddly winks Ty Vista Work of Art Ada Perry Cherry Hi English Porcelain Golden Halo Green diamond Halo today Hope and joy Iced Tea Irresistible Jessica Rose Mary Marshall Minnie Pearl Mother Lode Mr. Bluebird Ora Kelly Patrio Song Pennies from Heaven Polly sunshine Ralph Moore Ring of Fire Rita Applegate Robi Rose Gilardi Saluda Sequoia Ballet Sleeping beauty Starina Sunny day Sunshine Sally Sweet Caroline Toy Clown Winter Magic Wistful Woodstock Yellow doll Constellation DenverÂs Dream Double gold Focal Point Gem of the rockies Jean Keneally Jeanne Lajoie KeithÂs Delight Lavender Delight Millie Walter Montana New Beginning Red Cascade Rose Gilardi Ruby Magic Ruby Princess Snow Twinkle Splish Splash Starina Sunswept Vineyard Song X Rated Pam tillis Thanks -- if you have any that are less winter hardy than others and need more protection -- let me know (and also, what do you do -- extra mulch?) We also get -20 degree weather on a pretty regular basis!! Debbie