I know it wont be as bad, but DARN, I was just outside and everything is just starting to look good. Ann, you know things have developed slowly this year, and that was good because we didn't need a repeat of last year. So to loose it now would be doubly bad. It's not just the roses, although to lose the buds on my once blooming monster QE would be bad, but the hydrangeas and my poor Japanese maples that almost lost half their growth last year from frost damage. And my one crepe myrtle that got badly zapped last year and is now 3 feet shorter than the ones near it and is all budded out already. I did read in Horticulture Mag that last year was a perfect storm. Warmer than normal Winter and March seduced everything to grow earlier than normal. Then ZAP 3-4 days and nights of freezing temps. Good thing is it is going to be wet, so that should help. And I have bags of shredded leaves that I can put on somethings like my hydrangeas and at least protect the lower growth. And it's not going to be as cold during the day (supposedly) so maybe that will make a difference.

Moni, We won't hold it against you. Could they plan a long bike ride in Love County for every June, July and August weekend so it will rain here? Speaking of rain, you should see the radar of the storm approaching us. Thunder, lighting, no rain yet, but 2" hail and a brief tornado touchdown across the river from us. I'd say I am excited we might get rain, but I'm worried we might get the hail/tornado. I should head for the shelter soon. Bah! Second time this year a wicked storm has headed our way out of the SW--and the last one was the Feb. 10th F-4 tornado that hit Lone Grove. The way our luck goes, the whole thing will miss us. Well, I guess not--they are opening up the tornado shelters in town, so I'm headed for the cellar. D

Jay, Once the cold weather passes, it may be tomato planting time here......maybe about Tues. or Wed. depending on what the forecasters say and on what I feel "in my bones". I think that after this cold spell passes, zone 7B "ought to" be done with the cold, but I might be wrong. I'm making progress too, but there's so much I need to do that actually involves "planting" and, with this cold spell, planting of warm-season crops just isn't smart yet. Imp, I hope you're not in the part of NW OK expecting wind gusts up to 60 mph between about noon and 3 p.m. because that kind of wind is so hard on plants (and power lines, etc.) The last time we had wind like that here, trampolines went flying hundreds of feet and, in more open areas, hundreds of yards. And, of course, some power lines came down. I hope you can throw bedsheets or blankets or something over your ornamentals and save them. This certainly is challenging weather. Dawn

Heather, The trellis looks nice and sturdy. Carol, I'm glad you got the bean seeds in the ground. I have 7 types of bush beans in the ground--four types went in about a month ago and, if the weather doesn't get them, they are almost blooming size already. The three other types went in about 10 days ago and only have a couple of true leaves. I think 4 of the 7 are romano types--but in different colors. I have a pink one (Tanya's Pink Pod), a purple one (Purpuriat) and golden one and a green one and I don't remember the name of either without going and looking them up because my brain doesn't remember much of anything from a month ago. Of the three I planted more recently, I do remember that one of them is Red Swan, which is one of Robert Lobitz's crosses that involved a pinto bean and a green bean, and another is a white half-runner, which I spaced pretty widely cause they get kinda big. I hope to plant pole beans next week if the soil isn't too wet in the area where I want to put them. That will depend on how much rain falls here. My big production onion bed is in the Peter Rabbit Garden this year covered with hoops with bird netting to keep out digging critters. My other onion bed in the main garden has struggled with being too wet for too long, so I've been harvesting those as green onions for fresh eating for weeks now. I harvested in selected areas, leaving 'holes' in the densely-planted bed. I went back last week and plugged 13 tomato plants into that bed--mostly late-season producers like Mortgage Lifter and Phoenix and a few of the varieties from The Dwarf Project. In another month or so those plants will be a lot bigger, but by then I will have harvested all the onion plants close to the tomato plants. By the end of May, it is likely it will be only a tomato bed and not an onion-tomato bed. I felt slothful and lazy after reading how some of you had covered up your plants, so I went out last night and covered up the stock tank tub planter that has the 4 plants I planted in February. I had to use a ladder to attach shade cloth to the top of the cages. I also covered the cattle trough that has lettuce plants, a few beet plants for young beet greens, and 19 tiny tomato plants---most of them are Red Robin, Pixie Orange and Canary Yellow, but also Little Sun and a couple of others I haven't grown before. These all will stay small--maybe 18" tall and produce cherry-sized toms. Tim likes to be able to step right out the back door, walk a few feet and pick a handful of fresh cherry tomatoes for salad. (He isn't out in the garden all day like me, eating them right off the plant like they are candy!) Right now it looks a little crowded, but as lettuce plants come out, the tomatoes will have more room. Using all these creative planting techniques, I've been able to plant more tomatoes than usual. I counted my plants last night while I was out there, and I have 172 plants in the ground and 39 in containers. If the weather is halfway cooperative, I should be able to can all the tomatoes and salsa I want this summer, dehydrate gazillions of them, and have plenty to share with extended family and friends for fresh eating. I started a second round of tomato plants a couple of days before March ended. Those plants are only about 3" tall now but when they are bigger they will be plugged into the big garden wherever cool-season stuff is coming out, and some will go into containers. I had meant to start them earlier than I did, but got so caught up in all the early planting that I just didn't get around to it. With weather like this,having 4 flats of tiny tomatoes is kind of comforting. If the garden gets smashed, I have smaller, younger replacement tomatoes in addition to the big old backup plants in the greenhouse, which hopefully are destined for the Spring Fling. I have planted more veggies than usual in the space I have in the garden, but fewer flowers in a dedicated border on the southern edge by the driveway because I put 23 tomato plants in that border, with the flowers squeezed to either corner of that bed. There's other flowers scattered around in each veggie bed too. I still have room for all the pepper plants, some southern peas, pole beans, okra, squash (I have 7 plants out there already) and late corn, and maybe melons. It is likely I'll rototill a new area behind the barn for late corn and more squash and southern peas. I thought we'd have that done by now, but that area has been too wet to rototill since at least December. So, it sits in the back of my mind as the major item on my 'to do' list as soon as the soil is dry enough for it. Susan, If our weather is a smorgasborg, why can't we just say "no thanks" and hide our plates behind our back? I know we need weather, including rainy weather, but all this crazy weather sure does drive gardeners to the brink of insanity at times. Clearly our risk is lower down here in southcentral OK than it is in central OK and points northward, but I'm not letting down my guard at all. Dawn