Ann, my understanding of the zones, from an article I read years ago, is that they really only take into account the lowest probable temperature that one might encounter during the course of the winter. It went on to say that this does'nt mean that it's the lowest POSSIBLE temperature, since we obviously get the occasional night or two when it goes below the "zone low" temp. It also mentions that not every night during winter will go down to the temperature range for the zone (for example here in zone 6, not every night will be between 0 and -10). It would be considered normal for zone 6 to get no more than perhaps 10 - 12 nights during one winter where it will get down to those temperatures, but if those 10 - 15 nights occurred consecutively, that would be considered not normal. And the main problem with the zone approach is that it doesn't take into account how long the temperature remains at these lows, nor how it recovers by day, which really makes all the difference. We've had a very mild winter so far, and if I went strictly by overnight lows, then I'm in zone 8 (!) but the daytime highs here, although very pleasant, are nowhere near as warm as a true zone 8 would be. And a low of 24 for instance here can last many, many hours, while in a true zone 8 it may only last for a couple of hours before dawn, and then the daytime temperature may climb to the 50's or 60's, whereas here the daytime high may slowly climb to the upper 30's. Just and example, but I think you can see what I mean. But, having said all this, I always remember that plants can't read zone maps (!) so if I think something I like has a chance, even if I have to site it, protect and pamper it, then I'll give it a try. Why not? Makes interesting gardening and maybe I'll discover that the books were wrong about a plant's zone rating. That's what happened with Clerodendron trichotomum. I always see it rated for zone 7, but mine has been growing and blooming happily here for over 20 years, and it's at the windy, northwest corner of (but not close to) the house.

NHbabs, I'm envious of you for having the Merrimack river right in your backyard, so to speak. For many years we used to vacation at the other end of the Merrimack where it opens into the ocean at Salisbury, MA in a rather violent mass of deadly looking whirlpools. The state reservation where we stayed had a long riverside beach that converged with the ocean beach. Many happy memories of walking along that river beach with our dogs, before we sold our little travel trailer. You must be at the opposite end, near the river source. Pixie, I love the photo of the fungus growing on your stumps. Such beautiful color patterns. For some reason I kept envisioning moths with the same coloring that would camoflague perfectly with the fungus on your stumps. Franeli, that is a splendid landscape. You must live at a higher altitude than we do, as you had much deeper snow than we when that picture was taken. Pixielou, it's not hard to see why you decided to buy your home based on the beautiful winter view of your pond. And NHbabs, your last winterscape is really exceptional. The lighting and the hayrake in the foreground really make it! I guess it's on to Feb winterscapes now, but I wanted to comment before this thread passed into obscurity. I always seem to have more time to browse than to comment!

Such beautiful landscapes. Should have followed my gut when I picked up those yellow tulips in the store the other day then put them back. Steve was smart; good for you! Claire, those bottom pictures of the solitary chair and frozen beach bordering an ever-changing tide -- either picture looks like the perfect cover for a memoir. The back corner of my yard is dedicated to my 'Philosophy Garden" and now I see a lonely bench awaiting guests. In spring and summer, the bench is not visible with the growing shrubs, trees and their leaf cover. I wanted a secret garden, tried to build it, and now, after about 6 years, its secretiveness grows, but winter reveals all. Jane

Jennifer, The first time I saw a BP truck at our Wal-mart, which was just last week, it was only delivering wooden shipping crates of BP onions, but then it was back this week delivering a few cool-season herbs and veggies. I'm thinking of those poor little plants right now because our OK Mesonet station is showing a current temperature of 20 degrees and that's pretty much borderline too cold for some of the plants I saw yesterday, especially given how small they are and the fact they are in small containers and not in the ground where soil temperatures could help insulate them from some of the effects of the cold. I hope the garden center employees covered up those plants last night or moved them indoors. While the very early transplant arrivals often do not freeze or have damage at 20 degrees, sometimes they do....and sometimes the damage is invisible and can result in later problems like early bolting or buttonheading of brassicas....and no one links that bolting or buttonheading in March or April to the fact that the plants were exposed to excessively cold temperatures while on the garden center shelves in late January or early February. I'm sorry your mom has the flu and wish her a speedy recovery. I hope whatever you're fighting is not the flu and that you can successfully repel those germs. I carry hand sanitizer in my purse, not that I am obsessive about it, but I hate touching anything in a grocery store at this time of the year for fear that flu and cold germs are lingering everywhere. I wash my hands constantly, and I do not understand how/why people would use a public restroom facility and not wash their hands. I just don't get it. Rebecca, Well, spinach is really cold hardy. Perhaps dew and/or frost have left enough moisture behind to induce germination. We're in severe drought, are awfully dry and have tons of tiny little green things sprouting everywhere now. In fact, the OK Mesonet's Relative Greenness for our county went from 11% last week to 21% this week, which surprised me, but then when I looked at the ground closely, I could see all the tiny green sprouts popping up in fields, and clearly the program (satellite? radar?) that calculates Relative Greenness for each county is 'seeing' that greenup as well. Are any of y'all allergic to cedar (which actually is juniper, but I cannot win that battle on getting people to correctly label it)? Because it is pollinating down here already and everyone who is allergic to it is having allergy symptoms already, including Tim and I. Just yesterday I was looking at cedars in our neighborhood and commenting to Tim how heavily they're covered in pollen, and Fran and I noticed the same thing while out at wildfires in northern Love County a few days ago. A lot of folks who recovered from the flu now thing they are having a relapse or have caught a cold or whatever, and I just wonder if what's actually happening is they are allergic to the cedar pollen. Nancy, We all are so proud of Amber. She's just an awesome person and her students are so lucky to have a teacher who loves them and works so hard to teach them. Everything she does is always for them and about them, so when she was named Teacher of the Year, she was totally surprised because she doesn't think about stuff like that---her focus is completely on her kids. The riding mower is dead.....or dying. It is around 16 or 17 years old and gets used a lot since we mow about 2 acres regularly. I think it really needed to be retired 3-5 years ago, but Tim is a cheapskate who doesn't want to spend the money to buy another one, so he keeps fixing it and keeps it limping along and just barely working. I just kinda wish he'd go ahead and buy a new one and have something reliable. Weekends are too short as it is and he doesn't get much mowing done if half the weekend is spent chasing down parts and fixing the mower. Jen, I bet it was a nice day to go to the dog park. Our dogs spent a lot more time outdoors today in their dog yard than they usually do in the winter, and they were so thrilled that it was mild, sunny and warm. They were exhausted by the end of the day which I always think is a good thing as it does cut down on how energetic they are in the evening. I think Tigger is the perfect name for a dog! I assume the planters you're planting are your winter sowing? Have fun finishing it up. Nancy, That bermuda grass is such a nuisance, and it creeps into the east end of my garden every year in late summer once it is too snaky for me to hand-weed it out. Johnson grass does the same, and it essentially is bermuda grass on steriods. Since I don't use chemical herbicides and since the presence of the rattlesnakes and copperheads makes weeding too risky after a certain point, that sort of invasion just cannot be avoided. It drives me mad. Even if I could hand-remove it, I'm willing to bet that at some point the summer weather would get too hot and I'd decide I wasn't going to spend all that time out in the heat removing it. I'll be removing all of it this week (I hope) that I can as long as the wind stays down and I am able to spend more time at home in the garden instead of being away at fires. I think on Mon and Tues, the wind will be low enough that I'll be home in the garden. I'm not so sure about Wed and Thurs because the stronger winds are expected to return then. I have been watching for snakes this week on the warmer days because last January they came out here in southern OK on the warm winter days. A little girl in the Austin, TX area was bitten by a rattlesnake at Longhorn Caverns State Park a few days ago on a warm, sunny day when the family was excited to get outdoors and have fun after being cooped up by cold weather, and that certainly caught my attention. Undoubtedly it generally is warmer in Austin than it is up here at this time of the year, but not necessarily that much warmer, so I took her mom's warning about snakes being out to be a serious one. I think your soil will be fine whether the stuff is broken down enough or not. We have gazillions of things that sprout and grow just fine in some pretty awful dense, red clay.....although I'd never expect my precious garden plants to survive and perform well in that stuff. It is merely that as the soil gets better via amending, the plant performance improves year after year. I've always been in it for the long haul---not expecting to totally turn around the soil in 3, 5 or even 10 years, but just dedicated to continually improving it slowly over time. There's places in my garden that probably never get as much compost as I'd like, but the plants grow well there anyway. I do look at the improved soil now and have trouble remembering how truly awful it was in the beginning---but all I have to do is dig down maybe a foot to get beneath the area of improved soil and there's my reminder of the awful red clay we started out with. We only eat out about once a week, something made easier by the fact that it is pretty much too long of a drive to go anywhere that we'd really like to eat, and eating out usually is restricted to the weekend anyway since Tim's long commute makes his day incredibly long as it is. By the time he walks in the door at night, he's been gone 13 or 14 hours and going out to eat is not on his list of things he wants to do....and I don't blame him. I am hoping for a better week this week than last week when we had fires virtually every day. Having said that, we're off to a bad start, with the fire pagers going off for a vehicle in the roadway on fire about a mile from our house around 4 a.m. this morning. I am sure there's tons and tons I do not understand about motor vehicles, but I just do not understand how you're driving up the road at 4 a.m. and all of a sudden your car or truck bursts into flames. That must be a terrifying moment when you realize you're in a vehicle that is on fire. So, now that I am up and wide awake, there's no way I can fall back asleep. Tim, by contrast, can crawl back into bed after something like that and be asleep and snoring in 5 minutes. I wish I could fall back asleep like that, but it just doesn't happen---once I'm awake, I'm awake to stay. This is useful in summer because I just go outdoors at the break of day to get into the garden early and beat the heat, but not so useful in winter when it is cold outdoors. Dawn