I know that so many of you have had a long, cold winter, ....but I'm glad it wasn't me this year. ;-) Usually I still have snow while other zone 5ers are posting their pips, but this year I've got hostas in various stages of growth, and they're eager to get going. Here's a couple of the biggest ones near the house: Satisfaction Arc de Triomphe Our last (average) frost date is just under a month away, mid May, so I'm hoping for the best because I won't baby them if the temps get low. And some early tulips just because they're so pretty!

Laura, Oops! Those perennials should have stayed underground a while longer. Mine that were close to the house are OK, but the ones further away from the house were bitten back a little by the freeze too. Maybe we'll have the last freeze behind us before we all gather for the potluck dinner and swap! Randy, I hate losing the fruit again, but am getting used to it. I had three good years in a row with fruit in the early 2000s, but am paying for it now. The law of averages always wins out in the long-term, doesn't it. Diane, Send your excess rain here. LOL Y'all watch out early Mon. a.m. and early Tues. a.m. because another freeze is forecast. In fact, I'm gonna start a thread on that in the hopes that it will slow down anyone who thinks this weekend is going to be a good time to plant warm-season crops. Dawn

Randy - they are nuts, aren't they? In our opinion, that is. But, they are much hardier than we are. I remember wanting to go swimming when I was a kid - before the city pool opened (I grew up in a very small town in SE Kansas) we swam in the ponds, creeks, rivers, etc. We took "shower baths" with the hose, too. It must have been freezing, but I don't remember feeling the cold then like I do now. Just think, the pools open in 2 weeks for Memorial Day weekend! I hope it's warmed up by then. Geez, I feel like I'm reliving winter with sun! The 40s are not too surprising for winter weather here in Oklahoma, but for mid-May????? Susan

Dale, I'm planning to plant my garlic this weekend too. Susan, The ripening of most warm-season veggies seems to slow down as autumn deepens. I believe it is the combination of fewer hours of daylight and cooler temperatures. To a certain degree, the cooler weather and less intense sunlight also seems to affect tomato flavor. The flavor of tomatoes harvested in November or December just isn't the same as the flavor of tomatoes harvested in June, July or August. Some years I have harvested several brown paper grocery bags full of fully green tomatoes with no color breaking in advance of the first hard freeze. Since very few of them will ripen (it depends on the variety and on how green they are), I usually use them for canning or for fried green tomatoes and/or give them away to friends who use them for the same things. This, however, is not one of those years. Most of the green ones I have are currants or cherries, with only a few larger ones. Dorothy, We stayed a toasty 43 last night, so everything in our garden here should be 'safe' for at least another week. My tomatoes didn't recover enough to give many of the new green fruit time to ripen unless we have an incredibly late hard freeze and I just don't think the weather pattern indicates a very late first freeze. I'll get some ripe cherries and currants, but likely not any ripe big ones. The hoppers finished off our beans, but I still have okra, peppers and sweet potatoes, and lots of herbs. I didn't plant anything for fall. August was too hot and dry, we were starting to go to grassfires quite a bit and the water bill was already scarey high. I thought we were going to be very dry and going to fires so decided I wouldn't try to plant cool-season crops for the fall gardn. Then a foot of rain fell in Sept. (most of it was from topical storm moisture plumes that traveled up here after topical storms or hurricanes hit Texas/Mexico), which was just too much rain for planting anything new since we had standing water forever. Everything left in the garden in Sept. developed fungal issues, except for the sweet potatoes. Since I have been neglecting the garden while busy with other things, I now have lovely crabgrass and morning glories growing among the regular flowers in the flower border that runs alongside the veggie garden. As soon as it is less snakey, I'll clean out that flower border at least. Apparently all that rain in Sept. stirred up the snakes because we have had huge numbers of them in Sept. and Oct., many more than normal, and they primarily seem to be hunting and eating frogs since the frog population was huge this year. Jo, Brandywine can be a heart-breaker. The best Brandywine year I ever had was 2003 which was a drought year. I think we had a pretty mild late winter and early spring and I planted them very, very early and covered them up well on cold nights. It was our worst drought year ever, and I did water like a maniac. I think our rainfall for the whole year was just a smidgen over 18". In that horrible drought year, I had about 8 or 9 Brandywine plants (I had Brandywine Sudduth, Platfoot Yellow Brandywine, Red Brandywine, and Brandywine OTV) and had so many Brandywine tomatoes in July that I was giving them away because we couldn't eat them fast enough. Some of our friends couldn't believe we grew tomatoes that tasted that good and had never given them one before. I told them it was because we rarely get a ripe Brandywine here at all, much less 'extra' ones to give away. I haven't had a bountiful Brandywine here since then. I wish I knew what was so magical about that year so I could duplicate it. I think it likely was that I planted very early---probably in early March. About 4 years later we saw a shift in weather here that has given us at least one freezing night in early May every year since then, so I now plant my tomato plants about 6 weeks later than I was planting them in the early 2000s. It makes me crazy and I think it is one reason I haven't been able to have that kind of Brandywine year again. Dawn