Let's talk about hardiness

[spinbaby]

I planted myoga in the garden this year and it looks quite nice. However, it's a zone 7 plant I suspect is only marginally hardy in my zone 6 garden. The friend I got it from claims she never has any difficulty getting it through the winter but she lives in a far more sheltered location near the river--a different climate, really. Will a really deep mulch help the myoga get through the winter or should I just leave it alone and take my chances?

[FloridaPat]

1. I had a bush in Minnesota that wasn't suppose to take the winters.

I buried it in snow and everything else I could find. It survived. Go for it.

[Gato Moteado]

2. well, when the first freeze hits, you'll probably lose all the foliage...

my guess is that your friend's myoga dies back to the ground every winter and returns in the spring from the rhizomes. your best bet for keeping it alive in the ground is to mulch heavily, preferably with compost and manure that is still giving off some heat.

what i would do is transplant some into a pot and pull it indoors during the cold part of the winter so i'd have some next year just in case the stuff doesn't come back in the spring. it's a ginger and should do fine in a pot anyway.

[spinbaby]

3. Good idea

I'll dig some up this weekend. It's really pretty--I'd hate to lose it.

[LiberalEsto]

4. Last fall I got advice here about my fig tree

My Brown Turkey fig died down to the ground every winter and got such a late start in the summer that it never produced ripe figs. I'm in Maryland, in Zone 6.

So I asked this Gardening forum what to do. They told me to make circular cages from chicken wire to surround the tree and fill them with leaves.

I made two cages of 24" high chicken wire and stacked one atop the other. Each was about 4 feet in diameter. We dumped in lots of raked leaves to cover the fig tree. When the leaves settled, we added more. Then we cut up the used Christmas tree and put the branches over the leaves.

The fig branches survived the winter nicely and the tree produced dozens of figs. As a bonus, some of the leaves turned into compost and fertilized the tree and everything else around it. It looked spectacular.

[Gato Moteado]

5. hey that was me that gave you that suggestion!

i'm glad you tried it and had great success!

[LiberalEsto]

6. Many thanks! nt

[hatrack]

7. Speaking of hardiness....

....we live in Missouri and have planted chard, rutabagas, kale and beets for fall. How deep into fall or winter can we expect them to keep growing?

[TygrBright]

8. Where in MO?

There's at least 2 or 3 different hardiness zones in MO. Rutabagas and beets will be fine as long as you can dig, that is, until the ground freezes absolutely solid, although you'll lose the greens earlier, after a couple of prolonged hard frosts. Chard and kale will keep going well into the light/moderate frosts, you should be able to pick them for a while yet.

helpfully,
Bright