So far we win the prize.....and it is not a prize I want to win. Nineteen degrees here and I suspect my onions are probably dead even though I covered them up with hay quickly last night as I was leaving to take dinner to the firefighters. I didn't cover up anything else but all my tender seedlings and potted plants were either in the house or in the well-insulated barn/garage. I hope to carry the plants back out at mid-morning after it warms up, but whether or not I manage to depends on the fire activity. Before I can spend time gardening, gotta run outside and feed all the animals, and then make a run to Sam's in Sherman to get several dozen cases of water and Gatorade and tons of food. It is taking a lot to keep our firefighters, now in their 8th day on this brushfire, fed and well-hydrated. Mitch, usually potatoes will regrow from the tubers even if all the foliage is blackened and frozen. After last year's late freeze in May, it took mine at least 2 weeks to put out any new growth though, so you may have to wait a while to see the recovery. I hope all the plants that were covered up made it through the cold in everyone's yards the last couple of nights. Jay, if y'all are "late" with the corn that far north, imagine how my "old farmer" buddies who normally plant corn in March are feeling now.....everyone's going nuts! Now that a rapid warm-up is expected, let the planting games begin! Scott, I'm not optimistic either. Know I'll lose the remaining fruit at 19 degrees. The native pecan trees haven't leafed out yet, but I bet they will soon. I'm ready to plant anytime after today but the ongoing wildfire issues will dictate my schedule, unfortunately. I'm running out of creative cooking ideas for large crowds, too! On the other hand, hungry firefighters will eat anything you cook for them. Yesterday, I made 15-bean soup, cornbread muffins and mixed berry cobbler. Today I am so tired that they may get hot dogs and chips. :) I think one of the other wives is going to make chicken spaghetti today in anticipation of the FFs needing to be fed tonight, so that takes some of the workload off of me. So far, our evil little fire has burned an area almost 6 miles long and 4 miles wide, but we've only lost a couple of houses and a few outbuildings. I need for these wildfires to stop so I can get back to my gardening. At least with a hard frost on the ground, we shouldn't have fire issues until the morning sun burns the frost off the grass. Dawn

I'm no peony expert, and I've heard to wait until the first hard frost, too - but I don't think it would HARM the plant any if you cut back a couple of weeks or so before the hard frost. The idea is to keep the green leaves on the plant as long as possible because thru them the plant gets nutrition to the root to store up energy to produce blooms. So cutting back foliage a few weeks earlier would theoretically reduce that energy storage a wee bit. I don't know if anyone's studied that to see if a few weeks actually makes any discernable difference. Maybe lose 1 bloom out of 20?

I'm not ready either and I'm hoping I'm far enough south that it misses us. Tonight our local meteorologist gave our region only a 30% chance of some sort of snow or snow/rain mix on Tuesday. (Maybe on Monday, but I hope not, because that's the night of Marietta's combination lighted holiday parade, Christmas Tree lighting, arrival of Santa, and kickoff of the holiday food drive for our local food bank.) We don't need rain or snow interfering with all that activity! I have a gazillion boxes of new Christmas lights and other decorations piled up in the weight room awaiting Sunday's "let's decorate the fire truck for the parade" party. I'd hate to do all that work and have snow/sleet or whatever cancel the parade....or just enough rain falling that families won't bring their kids out to see it. Oh, and we had freezing rain mixed with regular rain on Thanksgiving Day this year, but we weren't at home to see it fall. It didn't stick anyway because the ground was warm and the air was hovering right around but not below freezing. I'd forgotten about that stuff. I enjoyed the snow last year. All my life I wanted a "white Christmas" just like in the song of the same name and, finally, at the age of 50, I had one in 2009. It wouldn't bother me if we have no snow this year, but based on what the forecast is showing, I think we'll likely have some this year and it seems like it is trying to start early. I still have green leaves on some of my oak trees. Apparently they aren't ready for winter either. Dawn

well they save cookies..main key words..in her case would be "lawyer", "divorce", etc I know that whatever I write about-any language-I start getting suggestions based on key words. I'm using gmail..all that google thing-very apt in picking just about everything about you. Then if somebody indeed hacks an email-very easy to concoct some story that might fly. Actually to me is somewhat more believable, than going about very sensitive matters like asking for money, and not only money but huge commitment that is attached to such promise, in email. Maybe I'm looking for the bright side here, benefit of the doubt. roarah knows more about her friend and her ways, than us. I wouldn't respond to an email and especially if hacked. I'd rather call..or not. Depends. I wouldn't send a fruit basket either, I thought it's tongue-in-cheek suggestion. When I can help and want to-why fruit basket? If I can't and don't want too-again, why fruit basket?