Nancy, happy to suggest. Against a wall like that, you could use a roll of 4-ft. tall chicken wire to build a half-circle cage around the pots, the bigger the better, fill with leaves. Using straw bales as a row around the outside of the pots would help, if you can do it without much gaps. You could roll the wire back up in the spring to use again the following winter. A pile of that size should generate some heat and stay unfrozen in the core and at ground level. That insulating factor is why people do it.

Then in the spring you could scatter some Zinnia, sunflower, marigold, cosmos, or other seeds of your preference in the area where the pile was, as the summer use for that spot. Unless you think you "need" the grass (creeping Charlie) there.

Doing it behind the garage wouldn't matter what it did to the ground, it wouldn't stay bare for long. That's the space filled with Pokeberry and wild grape vine, some Queen Anne's Lace, daylilies... something would quickly fill the void once they were removed! The garage isn't heated though or attached to the house. I still have a hard time thinking it would keep ground from freezing in containers even with bales of straw and leaves piled up. But might be worth a try to see what survives.

Just moving a dozen 12" planters into the basement really isn't that bad though. I can do 4 each trip by back down the stairs and moving them each down a few steps. My knees don't like stairs!

If you try something along those lines, let us know how it goes.

I wish I could get a pokeweed to grow. I've had a few sprouts show up over the years, but none live past the first real heat of summer. I know they *can* survive because I've seen amazing ones while camping in FL but my yard is always so dry and it doesn't rain regularly where I am like it does along the coast.