Coming to zone 5 from zone 9 means precautions in the winter that I never had to take previously.

End of December, talk of snow coming in. I was late finishing my mulching and was worried about my rhodie out front. Sitting at the table, thinking about this, I finally jumped up and announced that I needed to spread 'at least' one bag of mulch. It was 9:30pm at night and 30 degrees. Didn't feel cold in my heavy coat, especially dragging and spreading SEVEN bags of half-frozen mulch. (okay, once you get started...I stopped ONLY because the neighbor dog started barking and I didn't want my neighbors to think that I'm weird.)

What I didn't think about is that if you're outside for that length of time and it's below freezing and not wearing gloves...:p

Took two weeks of slathering my hands with grease to get the skin on the back of them to heal. But I learned that if you jump up and down on a bag of frozen mulch, you can break it up enough to spread it. ;)

Stick around. Gardening season is just starting here. I'm sure that I'll provide more than enough entertainment through my ignorance to make you feel much better! LOL