Well so far the storms have been mostly rain and this afternoon (SAT) we get about a 1/2 inch of sleet and then back to rain. Maybe we wont get alot of snow if the temp stays up enough. I am just getting to see my younger blueberry plants and if the weather stays nice this week like it is suposed to might beable to get outside to do a little bit. All will tell by morning. I think I am going to start some seeds soon. I know I should wait another few weeks. Maybe I will give it another 2 weeks and call it close enough to April. We have a few bulbs already sprouting that we bought sitting in the house. They need to be potted I think. At least until I can get them outside. My agenda is set to finish spring cleaning this week and early next week at both houses so I am ready to work outside and spring clean the berry field and garden ASAP. When the weather finally decides it is spring I will be ready to rumble.

I'm sorry Susan! I didn't realize that wasn't what you wanted...might need better glasses. lol. I use this one all the time (well, the one at the bottom. Wish you could do more than one link at a time): Oh, and I absolutely love this one: http://www.chestnut-sw.com/seeds/herbseed.htm And there's even a grow guide to tell you what veg you should be starting when. It's the coolest thing - I play with it constantly! lol, nothing like software telling you what you're suppose to be doing today! http://www.chestnut-sw.com/growform.htm Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Germination Database

Well, here in Northamptonshire on a slightly exposed site I lost half of my newly planted out beans during the night of 1st to 2nd June a few years ago. Since then I always plant out with frost/slug protection (cut off lemonade bottle) over each bean. For phenology observers, who plant according to other occurences in nature, there is the old adage: 'When May is out, winter's lost its clout.' The 'May' refers to Hawthorn and ours has just started flowering here in the hedge. I also think we are safe, but, just in case, a bit of fleece or even a sheet of newspaper draped over plants could make all the difference should we get another cold night.

My uncle grew blueberries just fine southeast of me in Texas---mostly east and only a little south and about 160 miles from here. His plants were growing in acidic soil, in an area with a higher water table (very close to the lake but not lakefront as there was one lot between their place and the lake) and tons of huge tall pines, so his blueberries were true understory plants growing in humid dappled shade, no full sun, and they were very happy. They produced well there because he had the specific microcIimate and soil they needed. I suspect the heavily dappled shade kept them quite a bit cooler than they would have been in full sun or even in morning sun and afternoon shade. He grew the rabbiteye types and grew multiple varieties to spread out the harvest. His plants were huge and produced heavily. They put up tons of blueberries in the deep freezes every year. Anyone and everyone I know in Oklahoma who has attempted to grow blueberries here eventually has lost the war to keep them alive, usually between about year 4 and year 7. I think it is the exceptionally hot and exceptionally dry year that will get them even after they are established for a few years and producing well enough to please whoever is growing them. I think people in the northeastern quadrant of the state likely have the best chance of growing blueberries successfully. Amy, The blueberries need a very specific soil pH that most of us here in OK do not have naturally and they need perfectly draining soil but then it also has to be able to hold enough moisture in the hotter weather. I suspect the Smart Pots with the drip irrigation system are to allow for great drainage and also to make regular irrigation easier to manage. It also is easier to provide the soil-less mix they need in Smart Pots than in the ground or in raised beds that include native soil, especially if a person has clay. Blueberries are a total impossibility here where I live because we have not only high pH soil but very high pH water. If I ever say I am going to try to grow blueberries here in hot, dry, high pH southern OK, y'all should tell me I need to have my head examined. Patti, Well now you've gone and done it. Here is is after midnight, the grandkids are having a slumber party in the living room, and I now am craving a fried pie. I doubt I could go into the kitchen and make a fried pie of any sort without waking up the children, so I guess I won't have a pie right now. (grin) Thorneless blackberries do not seem as resilient to me as the ones with thorns. I don't know why that is. Voles eat my blackberry roots (but don't touch the wild dewberry roots) so I've given up trying to grow them here. I'd have a much bigger and better garden if the voles would just leave my plants alone. That's never going to happen though. Rebecca, Williamson County is further than I would drive even if they have tomato plants. Anyhow, they will have them in the DFW metroplex soon enough if I have the urge to get a couple of early plants, and so far I don't have the urge. Some years they have them down there around the end of January and other years not until mid-February. I still feel like this cold weather is going to hang on and hang on for weeks yet and I'm not going to get in a big hurry with anything. Amy, Aww, poor Honey. If y'all decide not to keep her, I hope you can find her a nice home. All of our dogs that were diggers eventually outgrew the digging, but it took a few years. Jersey always has been such a wild runner, an escape artist and a digger. She finally has settled down, and that almost makes me sad because it is old age that has settled her down. She is about to turn 12 years old and not only is her whole face going white but so are her paws and legs. She used to be almost solid brown. Now she is brown, gray and white. Why is it that by the time a high-energy dog finally calms down to a reasonable level, he or she has one foot in the grave? Aurora still tells me almost daily that she misses Jet, and asks why he had to die. She wasn't even that attached to him because he was sort of a grumpy old dog. She adores Jersey and Jersey adores her and she hangs all over Jersey all the time. I cannot imagine what it will do to that child when Jersey crosses the Rainbow Bridge someday. Jen, Underplanting really does rock. I love being able to squeeze 3 crops into the space of 1. Well, there was nothing garden related for me today or even yesterday. Here is my non-gardening Saturday with the grandkids: breakfast, grocery store, feed store, home for lunch, playing and watching TV, off to the park to play on the playground, ice cream at DQ (it is across the road from the park in Gainesville), a late afternoon movie (The Kid Who Would Be King), home for dinner, more playing, TV and then bedtime. This includes Jersey practically sitting on top of the girls so they will give her their total attention. Where would I have squeezed in any time to even contemplate gardening? Heck, Wal-mart or TSC could have had tomato plants and I wouldn't even have noticed because I was doing my best to not lose the grandchildren while at the stores. Tim is always the most worn out on the weekends we have the girls and he always goes to bed first. It is exhausting keeping up with them so I totally get it. Dawn