Check link below Here is a link that might be useful: Please help me keep my miniature pink rose alive

Thanks so much everyone for the insight that was given on this post, I really appreciate you all taking the time to help me out! It's great to 'see' this thing through fresh eyes. All of the posts have been really helpful pointing out the issues with the house, door, shutters, plants, etc. I'm going to sit down with my DH tonight and talk to him about how we want to proceed from here to correct the problems. The roof will probably take two more steady weekends of work, so I have a little play time to make a decision and look further for a door replacement. I think that I'll remove the shutters this weekend too and look for door before I make any type of decision new ones. Johnatemp, that door is just beautiful! Cameron, Isn't the rain wonderful? :) Of course we had to laugh since it hasn't rained here in three month, but we strip the roof and here comes the monsoons! *LOL* I hope it's helping with the water level in the reservoirs. I know that our plants and lawn have certainly perked up, the lawn was all but dead and I was starting to wonder if we'd lose our weeping willow. We live West of you, a little South of Winston Salem. The last past two days here have been a good steady rain, I hope you all in Chapel Hill are getting a good soaking too!! :)

Here's a link on how to protect your bananas in the winter: https://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/banana.html I think it would be tough to keep it outdoor with your Winter temperature there. Some people overwinter their bananas by cutting them down and then storing the rhizome indoors. When the warm weather returns, they bring them out to plant again. Here's a video link to show how it's done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVga_4pX0Oc I know it must be disappointing to hear this .... I wish too they could stay out without being cut down. If you grow them in a greenhouse, that might be possible. Do you have a pool screen enclosure? If you do, I wonder if that could offer some protection to your bananas and if you could also warm the area up?

Whatever colors you choose, get a sample pot and paint a large piece of board or cardboard in that color. Look at it at different times of day since the light changes. We see too many sad posts on Houzz where people have been disappointed in the way a color looks over larger areas, and in outdoor light. When you do your plants, make your beds at least 6 feet deep. That may seem huge, but you need to have the first foot along your house bare, so you can access it for maintenance. Then, any decent size shrubs will probably be about 4 feet wide at maturity. (Check your tag on online where you'll see this information. ) That leaves you a foot in front of the shrubs if you want to plant any annuals. When you plant a shrub that's 4 feet wide at maturity, the center of the planting hole should be 3 feet from your house (2 feet from the center to the edge of the mature shrub, plus one foot space to house.) Before your shrubs are mature it may look a bit bare. Just plant self-seeding annuals in between and you'll plant fewer every year as the shrubs grow. I like annual white sweet alyssum which doesn't have deep roots and won't interfere with the shrubs' growth. Or use native plants that behave the same way. (We don't know where you live.) It's less expensive and more beautiful than mulching a large area with bark chips, and it will come back from seed next year. Google "green mulch" and you'll see what other have to say about this idea. If there is someone in your neighborhood whose front garden you admire, stop by when they are outside and ask about it. I have given so many cuttings and divisions of my garden plants to people. https://www.houzz.com/magazine/new-ways-to-think-about-all-that-mulch-in-the-garden-stsetivw-vs~25100660