Preparing for winter...leaves, pine needles and lady bugs

These last few weeks, Barre has been diligently working outdoors to have the lawn, trees, and greenhouse ready for winter weather. He patiently waited for most of the leaves to fall, and mowed the lawn and leaves, then after a week or so, mowed the last leaves that had fallen. He does not rake leaves, but the wind blows the pieces into the gardens for mulch. Previous to this job, he had cut back all the day lilies and irises for the winter. The longest and most tedious job, is adding an extra layer of heavy plastic to lower the ceiling of the greenhouse, and add more protection to the sides so more heat will remain inside. He also had to replace one of the panels at the end of the season. Now the greenhouse has been "put to sleep"

This year he wrapped only a few young evergreen trees that he had just planted. He mulched others with pine needles, and declared it is time to test their survival after a few winters living "out of their zone". We are at zone 5, and he has a redwood tree (zone 7), and a sequoia (zone 6), as well as hardy banana trees which produce no edible fruit. Our large evergreens in the backyard have produced all the needles needed to protect the other trees.
The last project Barre attempted was to collect lady bugs to live in the green house for the winter. After the first frost, the lady bugs swarmed on the house for a few days, and he collected at least 500 of them. However, within a few days, he no longer saw them in the greenhouse. Now he wonders where they went, because they seem to be invisible!