I'm thinking of making a lot of changes to my yard next spring so I don't have many plans to protect the garden this winter. I may put lights on a couple citrus trees and I'll probably cover the mussaenda if it gets too cold, but everything else is on it's own!

The orchids in the patio are set up so I can easily cover them and I'll be getting some freeze cloth for that; I'm tired of struggling with heavy blankets everytime it dips below 40 degrees. I have the pot ghetto down to a size that (mostly) fits under the orchid trellis so it all gets covered at once.

Kate

We're chasing summer, leaving for Australia on 12/3 where it's still warm. As usual, there will be photos daily on my website.

ooo birds, Ricky...take bird pictures in Aus. Please?

I'm with you, Kate..plan on leaving everything alone, but...just wait til we get that first 'freeze warning'. I'll be tearin' my hair and snippin' snips. What do you take cuttings of, Ariel? everything tender???

All over eastern Australia there are these wonderful gray and pink parrots. You see large groups (flocks?) of them congregating on lawns like ibis. It was so strange and fun to see such large numbers of a bird I thought of as exotic and unusual.

Do they taste like chicken?

Hi
Have been preparing for winter for well over 20 years and I'm still not ready lol I put a heating system in the shadehouse 3 years ago which works but is not perfect . Works great until the temps hit the 30's failed to keep the air above 45 but on the other hand it didn't overheat
during the day. It did keep the water gardens and the aquariums in the 70's but had to resort to bubble wrap and styrofoam during temps below 40. This of course defeats keeping the air warm lol.
I'm thinking there is no such thing as a zone 10 GH lol.
It did keep the water gardens ,fish and birds warm though. Seems the birds have never read the books that say they can't survive temps below 50. They refuse to roost in the warm area.lol
Heat is far more of a problem anyway and is sure a lot more difficult and expensive to solve .
In another 20 years I feel that I'll have things under complete control lol gary

I have some trash bags of leaves and pine needles hidden behind some split leaves. When we get a frost warning I put it on veggies and I might put it on some other things as well. It worked great on the veggies last year. It is messy though... In the veg garden I just use it for mulch after.

Hi Ariel,

I usually fill a long narrow planter I have (we call it Noahs' Planter, as in Ark) with a couple of every cutting from the yard and hope they all root so that I can re-populate the yard from these few cuttings if necessary. Every yr I do this, I never lose a thing. If I fail to do it this yr, watch it all freeze down to nubs.

I will only wrap the mango tree, nothing else.

BTW, everything and I mean EVERYTHING i covered last winter with frost clothes were nipped bad by the cold. On the plants where the clothes were blown off during the nite, they all made it without being damaged at all.

Good luck this winter!
Tony

Fawnridge,
I hope one day I can travel like you. I can't wait to see your pictures!

Beth,
I plant to take cuttings of all my coleus, which was over 50 kinds at one point, but I think I have lost some to slugs, bugs and weather. I will also take cuttings of a few of my salvias and who knows what else.

Tony,
what do you wrap your mango tree with? My mango tree gets nipped back every year and I never get mangos!
I like the Noah's planter idea.

(Ricky asked:) Do they taste like chicken?

I hear they taste more like manatee.

Hi Ariel,

I had been using an authentic frost blankets. I dont have the wrapper anymore for them (the wrapper may have done better than the blanket) otherwise I would shoot u a pic.

This will be my first yr getting ready to cover the mango and if it requires lights and covers I will do it. Its not that overwhelming to plan on dealing with one or two plants, but a yard full is nuts. I will say my good byes to the others and hope to see them shortly after the frost but will understand if they dont come back.

Time to move more south I guess.

Do you all ever use Preen before laying down new mulch to control weeds? I haven't done this in the past but I'm sick of the weeds and thinking about using it this year. I use newspaper layers where I can, but it would be tough to do in the area I'm about to mulch (too many shrubs, rocks, etc.).

Winter? What is that? Isn't this Florida? tee hee hee
In my Florida garden (Broward county) I have moved all the orchid pots into easily accessible areas so that if the temps dip too low I can bring them all in. I used to bring them all in at the low 50's. Now I only bring them in for the low 40's. Seems I only brought them in once last winter. Nature took care of my NC garden the last week of October. Got our first snow on the 27th so it is all asleep now, covered in leaf mulch. For Florida, this is my favorite time to garden. Even though the dry season brings shorter days, it is just so much nicer to pull weeds when the temps are in the 80's instead of the 90's. Don't yall agree?

I've already made cuttings of all my coleus. I'm starting now to set up my LR and DR to receive plants during cold spells. I stopped bringing them all in years ago, unless it went below freezing. Mostly, I just put the hardier ones on the back porch, and cover if I have to.

I also stopped covering a lot of plants long ago. This year all I'll cover is the COT I can't move, and maybe the baby bananas. I have way too many plants. I've been here 11 years, and have not lost one plant to a frost. Lost a couple to storms, but none to cold. My plumie got cold damage last year, but it survived. My neighbor's plumie died down to the ground, and came back up!