We are heading south this Friday. We are wandering our way down and will take 3 or 4 days to get to TX. TX people, if you send me contact info I will give you a call or e-mail when I am in the area. Plans are still fluid while in TX but would let you know ahead of time before coming to your area. Anyone in the Dallas area? Will be going through there early next week. I do get e-mail regularly through GW.

hi guys, i'm new to growing and have just experienced one of my two plants dying. They are in a big pot, and facing south (all day, on my window lege) and have grown very fast. One is beefsteak (big boy) and the other alicante. Approx they're both 30-40cm high. Suddenly in the last day or two the beefsteak has wilted and looks about to die. The main stalk is still verticalm but the branches and leaves have shrivelled a bit (although still green). The flowers are out. The alicante looks completely fine and looks very strong. So I'm confused why the first has suddenly gone wrong. There are no marks on the leaves, the only think is that there are small bulbous mounds on the stalk at the first 2 inches above the soil. I've watered it a lot, and have once a week used Tomorite. The soil is damp so i can't expect I've underwatered. Could i have overwatered? Or applied too much Tomorite? Or perhaps its been a bit too cold and windy the last few days? As i say the other is completely fine! If i can upload a photo I will try. Any help greatly appreciated. Image link:

Thanks all, I was watching the temps last night and we actually hit 4 at 11 pm last night so it's not like it would have been just a few hours at the low or so so I'm glad I moved everyone. No frost though so I guess my garden plants will live another day! Thanks Laura! Yep that's a Meyer with my first fruit ever on. There are actually 4 honkers on there, one got hit with the hail but the hail mark never seemed to spread or try to rot the fruit so I have been watching the fruit and decided to leave it on to fully ripen. It's killing me though it's taking forever!! The one beside it to the right is a eureka lemon and it has 4 good sized lemons on it too... Also my first ever!! So excited for those, but no sign of ripening yet. There was 5 but the hail got one.... Thanks Steve the garage is transitional until I put my trees in my grow room permanently. It faces south so I just open the doors and they get full sun. You remember my grow room with the HO T5s? I will post a pic when they go in there. Thanks Cory, yes the wether here can be cruel. But we got a super early spring so I can't complain much. You are so right about the occasional lows and then back to seasonal... That always happens here too! This entire week looks kind of nasty though so who knows what this season will bring. Good for you for getting started on your set up! Its terrible having to do it all in a panic like I did last night! Thanks dev I hope your season continues as long as possible. This is quite early even for us. I wanted to supplement my grow room too, I even just ordered a new bank of T5s but my electrician is tied up on another job. He better hurry up, running out of time!!

I’m so glad to read all the conversation about everone’s thoughts and experiences in each of your own neck of the woods. In the several weeks since my last post, I have slowly noticed changes around my feeders. We now have about a dozen bluebirds who are daily visitors. They began coming even before the recent arctic weather we’ve been experiencing here in the NE lately. Same for the woodpeckers - downy, hairy, and red bellied, and cardinals. Before the cold blast, we had more chickadees than we do now. We had less than a handful of goldfinches, but now their numbers are ever so slowly creeping up. Not too many nuthatches or titmice, but a few that frequent daily. A couple of squirrels have returned. Interestingly, my husband has a friend who feeds squirrels exclusively and his friend said the population of those that are regulars at his house nearly all but disappeared! Also, last week we heard about a gentleman in his 90’s in our town who has fed the birds for over 40 years! He experienced the same mass feeding frenzy near summer’s end that I did, then the complete drop off of any birds to be seen at all. He says he’s never experienced this in all his years of bird feeding that he recalls. We were going through nearly 2x’s the amount of seed than normal, to all of a sudden having seed sit out and basically spoil because it was hardly even touched for weeks on end. With the frigid temperatures, I have noticed an increase in the hawks eyeing our feeder birds. They have been unable to find food in the woods and areas they normally frequent due to a tremendous amount of snow and have, unfortunately, captured some of our unsuspecting feathered friends. They are quite bold, and hard to scare off, which is also unusual. And yes, we also have some feeder birds that seem unbothered by my presence at the feeders while filling them, and don’t fly away til I’m nearly on top of them! This year has certainly been a very interesting year in the local bird world!