On 1 Mar 2009, at 11:26, Jane McGary wrote: > I'm very pleased that the measures I went to to protect the plants in > December, when the temperature dropped to 14 F (minus 10 C) were effective. Would you be so kind as to repeat what those measures were? > The garden, however, is still in winter, with very little in flower other > than crocuses, snowdrops, and eranthis; also some early corydalis. Much the same here in Victoria, though the eranthis are well into the "going over" stage and no corydalis in evidence. > . . . no one will feel compelled to point out the weeds (there are very few > of those in evidence yet, either). Ah. weeds! It seems like every garden has its own selection and every gardener their own pet peeves among the weeds. Although I'm only about a mile and a half from the house I lived in until 1988, there are weeds here that I never saw there: Plantago major, Solanum nigrum(?), that horrible little yellow-flowerd, red-leaved oxalis. But both gardens harbor the one I most dislike, popweed. It's a Cardamine species, but I can't ascertain which one. I've already started this year's round of weeding it out; just in time, as some of the plants have already formed flower buds and are showing color. -- Rodger Whitlock Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Maritime Zone 8, a cool Mediterranean climate on beautiful Vancouver Island http://maps.google.ca/maps/…