Sylvia, I think I just need to hire you to be my personal seed shopper; you always have such good looking colorful edibles. What exposure does your sea kale have? I ordered a package from Johnny's when we bit the bullet and ordered the agribon cover. I have plans to grow a bunch up and harvest and freeze for use during the summer. Johnny's says it doesn't tolerate frost? I'm continually amazed at the multitude of micro climates around here. This month has been a thank you to the oak tree coverage. The gardens that are under heavy oaks are, for the most part; doing very well. The gardens out in the open; meh - not so good. I've lost a few plants I expected to loose, and lost a few I didn't want to loose. I'll replant one of the croton's I lost because it really makes a nice focal point for the street side veggie garden. I kept another croton alive by putting an upside down trash can over it :) Some of the other probably lost perennials will provide me the chance to rethink and plant something different. In past years, I've kept orchids out during low temps by running heat lamps in ground stake fixtures with sheets over the orchids. Sadly, last year my system developed some sort of short and I lost several of the orchids. I have enjoyed my orchids for years; moving them from SoFL to SoCa to Central Florida. But now that I can't move plants around I'm rethinking things. In the gee, surprise it is still alive department - If you look closely; that is a cherry tom - unprotected snug up to the electrical box and still growing away. And the zinnia's in front are the only blooming flowers remaining in the front. Normally this time of year I have Johnny Jump ups that reseed themselves each year; but this year they have not come up. My End of the driveway bed. In the front center are heavily covered pots containing tomato plants I started from saved comparti toms. I have shepherd hooks on either side that I use to create a tent like cover. I had planned to make it into a little greenhouse type area using plastic drop cloth. Nasty cold/flu/sinus crap has kept me away from my favorite toy store though. The real surprise though are the plants against the fence to the left; a sweet basil, eggplant and cilantro seedlings are all just fine and happy. I was happily surprised to see the cilantro, culantro and arugula all come through like shining stars. Again, they are in areas that have oak canopy's so I think that helped. I was very sad to see every last one of the basil curl up and melt; even our favorite spicy globe in a pot I covered. The coleus along the front of the house all froze (as expected) - Syvlia - perhaps you could suggest for me something edible and ornamental that I can plant in those spots? Preparing for the new season! For dinner last night we had left over italian meat pie with a huge side serving of slightly steamed greens from the garden. They were so very good; and they are all loving this cool weather and growing like crazy. Even the cranky spinach and celery are going gang busters now. If I can just figure a way to keep those dang rotten pesty squirrels out of our dinner. Those crazy things are running around like miniature banshee's frantically searching for buried treasure. I read that rats do not like catnip - so I'm going to plant lots of catnip around the salad beds this spring - squirrels are rodents also. And speaking of herbs; I found an old thread from 2008 in this forum which showed many pictures of ways to incorporate herbs into ornamental gardens. I would really love to see you "old timers" point out some of these tricks to us noob babe in woods peeps. ~dianne

It was hot all over, wasn't it? Our Mesonet station recorded an official 95, but at our house, 3 different thermometers, all of them in total shade the whole day, showed 100 degrees. You still were hotter than we were. Our forecast high for the next five days? 99-100-100-100-100. I guess the fun times in the garden are all done, and now it is going to be a battle for survival. I am up early and ready to head out to the garden to harvest as soon as there is enough daylight that I can see well enough to avoid snakes. After I harvest, I plan to fill the oven dehydrator with bite-sized tomatoes, and then I am going to make pickles and maybe some sweet pickle relish. Hopefully this afternoon I'll have time to bake several batches of cookies for the firefighters. I have a feeling we might be about to get busy. I had to feed them store-bought cookies on Friday (hanging head in shame as I admit that). I'm watching Tropical Storm Debby down there in the Gulf, and hoping that in a few days she'll throw us a bone....a drop in the air temp of a couple degrees, a little rain, something, anything....and it probably isn't likely she will hit TX or LA in the right spot to send some weather relief up into Oklahoma, but at this point, she's our only hope. At least maybe the Gulf states will get some drought relief, and hopefully nothing that is too damaging. Every year when this heat sets in I always ask myself why in the world I persist in thinking we can have gardens here in the summertime. : ) I wish I could put up spotlights and work in the dark of the night when it is so much cooler, but with our snake population, that's never going to happen. With this heat, my bumper crop of spider mites and grasshoppers likely will explode into the biggest outbreak of both in years. The spider mites got off to an early start this spring, popping up in latest March and running wild in April, so they're all over pretty much everything, although they definitely prefer tomatoes, beans and cukes to everything else in the garden at this point. Grasshoppers weren't bad until May, and I had a warning they were coming because I went to two fires south of us (one was only a few hundred feet south of our house, but the other one was several miles south and they had the hoppers in huge numbers first) in May where I saw a huge amount of grasshoppers, which I wasn't seeing here at our place at that point. Well, they're here now. I noticed yesterday that our bermuda grass blades are so dry and parched they're curling/rolling inward. I am not inclined to water the grass. All I've been watering is the container tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers, and the fruit trees we planted this past winter. Our ground is cracking and the ponds are empty. That's nothing new and I am finding it harder and harder to remember the years when the ponds didn't dry out and the ground didn't crack, which was in 2002, 2004 and 2007. At this point, 2007 seems like it was 100 years ago. At the big fire on Friday, I was in an area untouched by fire, though it was near the blackened, burned areas, and the native solanums had severe drought stress/leaf roll and looked awful. They looked so bad they made my tomatoes look good. A friend at the fire said he and his wife would be through canning in about 4 more days, and I was jealous, because I won't be finished that soon. My garden is bigger than theirs though. I am thinking the heat will end things earlier than expected, but it is too hot to be out there picking stuff all day anyway. I'm waiting for someone to develop a big, broad-brimmed garden hat that has a tiny air conditioner inside it that keeps a gardener cool enough to work outside in high temperatures. I saw on the news this morning that a new wildfire near Colorado Springs broke out yesterday. It is so awful there. As hot and dry as it is here, I cannot even imagine what it is like there. I am grateful that our state has had enough rain that we're not seeing the same sorts of wildfires that Colorado residents are having to endure. Last summer's fires were so bad here and in Texas, and I hope we avoid that this summer. We kept Chris' old dorm-size refrigerator, which is 4.3 c.f., and plug it in during the summer months so we can keep extra bottled drinks cold. Yesterday I filled it up with bottled water, bottled green tea, and Gatorade so we'd have plenty of drinks handy to remind us to stay hydrated when we're outdoors. If it is going to be 100 degrees at my house today, Jay, then I bet you'll be 104? 106? 108? Dawn

Well, our low bottomed out at 19, so it was hardly cold at all. : ) Of course, that didn't stop all the water in the bird waterers and dog dishes from freezing....and I had to break the ice on the lily pond so the wild creatures could drink. AND I carried water outside in a bucket and poured it on top of the "wildlife" puddle, so the small animals like birds and squirrels could drink. Those people in the cold parts of the country can have their cold and their snow and their cross-country skiing and their snowshoes. I'd never, ever move to a colder part of the country....and most of them probably have no desire to move to the parts of the country that are sizzling hot. My DH moved here from Pennsylvania right after college and has no desire to move back. After about 3 days of cold, cloudy weather, he starts complaining and saying "I moved here to get away from weather like this". We have freezing rain/ice in our forecast for tomorrow morning but I am not worried. Moisture in general has not fallen here this year, so why would it start now? LOL We were Christmas shopping in the Lewisville/Grapevine area today down in Texas and it was just as cold there as Marietta, and cloudy and gloomy too. Where's our sunshine? Dawn

I'm so sorry. But this too shall pass and your home will ultimately be wonderful. Ditto what others have said. I would add to that, going forward DOCUMENT EVERYTHING IN WRITING: the ridiculous explanation ("Joe Installer explained to me that the framers should have built the base 1/2" less than specified in the specs but also noted that the framers would have had no way of knowing this..."), and every further conversation and discussion with the framers, installer, etc. Visibly take notes during your next meeting with Joe Installer and write down your questions and his answers and explanations. Ask him to read, date and countersign said notes when your discussion is over. If you are concerned about how a discussion will go, ask a neighbor or friend to be with you during the discussion. The purpose of this friend or neighbor is not just moral support and watching the kiddos, but he/she will stay within earshot and you will also ask her/him to sign your notes as a witness, in front of Joe Installer. This is particularly important if, for example, Joe Installer declines to sign himself. If nothing else, seeing this the subcontractors will begin to take you more seriously and pay extra attention. If needed, these documents will be extremely helpful if you do have to take legal action to get this resolved without paying for a re-do. Been there, done that (not in my current remodel, thank goodness), it works. IMHO, no b-ness is required. You have the facts and logic in your favor. Combined with a calm, no-nonsense, professional manner you will make him see that the only acceptable choice is for him/his firm to eat the cost of redoing it correctly. Looking forward to hearing about your successful resolution of this!