I had the sheets on the blueberries ;-) But just pulled all the mulch off the strawberries before it started to rain, they look good, there was only 1 leaf cluster that looked a little weird (light and kind of puckered?), no black centers (how long after frost does it take the damage to show?) and some berries forming. Just came in for lunch - guess I'm not going to get anything planted today, or put anything outside to harden off. I'm not complaining, we need the rain, I'll just have to work outside tomorrow when it's sunny and high 70's (weird weather)! @howelbama - Lowes has frost blankets?! I even called burlap manufacturer near me the other day, they sell shade cloth but no frost blanket. I've never seen any of the big-box stores carry anything like frost blanket or row cover, and the nurseries don't seem to either. Do you have a SKU?

gardenluv, I've sown pretty many perennials already and just sent away for some seeds from J.L. Hudson and Prairie Moon Nursery. So I should have more to sow in a few weeks. :) Yeah, just what I need, more plants! LOL My neighbors will soon think I've lost it. Ha. I'm so glad to hear that you had success wintersowing snapdragons. I will ws the seeds that I collected from my plants a couple months ago. I think I'll sow them in about a month. If you're in zone 5 and sowed them in January, I'm confident that mine will be alright too. I would assume that they don't mind being snowed on then after the plants are growing. pitimpinai, Thanks for the welcome and for those links! :) I will be sure to check them out. I don't know why but I didn't think to look for a FAQ page. Duh! Ha, well, it's good that you could point me in the right direction. I hope I'll have time to do my wintersowing after I am done with my homework of doing all that readying. ;-) I will absolutely start right away...I love to read about plants and look through seed/nursery catalogs and have ordered some seeds. I look forward so much to planting that I called our local Walmart and asked when they would get their seeds in. :-D (Btw, I was told probably in another week or two). ghoghunter, I guess you and I are in the same zone, except I'm not sure if I'm in 6a or 6b. The map I found online didn't have a's and b's, just the numbers. Since I now know that it's okay to ws annuals, I'm going to do like you and sow all of my perennials and then ws my annuals. I have more perennials to sow than annuals and already sowed probably 3/4 of my perennials (none of my annuals, of course) and will be sowing some more perennials in another few weeks after I receive them in the mail. I still want to buy some red zinnias at Walmart or Lowe's when they get their seeds. I don't live too much on the wild side, so I think I'll wait another month to sow my annuals. :-D I just wonder why they saw on the packets to wait until danger of frost has passed to sow the annuals outside? Maybe the seed companies should read this forum. :) My list of perennials is fairly long and I don't want to bore anyone, but my annuals list only consists of zinnias, blue vervain, tropical milkweed, and hmmm...I know I have others but can't think of them right now. Thanks to all of you for your great help!

Yes you can. It's just slightly tedious. If you have the type of mechanism I'm thinking of, you go to the bottom slat where you'll find the ends of the cords held in place by little knots. Get a tweezers and pull these knots out of the little holes and undo the knots. Then pull the cords up through the holes in the slats until you get to the broken one. Remove it; replace with a good slat; rethread the cords through the holes; tie the knots again at the bottom. Does that make sense?

I wish I had taken before pictures. This cat had a large scratch on his back and a VERY noticeable somewhat circular scratch on his hip. The marks looked like silver paint in most lights but since they didn't respond to any conventional methods of removal I assume they were scratches. I found a site (http://www.great-glass.co.uk/glass%20notes/clean2.htm) which gave me hope. It advised: "Select a paper of similar coarseness to the surface on which you are working (too coarse and you risk leaving obvious scratches - too fine and the area will end up appearing more polished than the rest). Using a small circular motion, begin on the smear itself, and then gradually work outward with ever-decreasing pressure so that your repair blends in with the rest of the surface." I used what I had on hand - wet/dry sandpaper Extra Fine 320 grit, my brand sulphate free toothpaste (Closys), a spray water bottle, and a washcloth to dry the area. I worked slowly using just one small corner of the sandpaper in widening circles, spraying and drying after each pass to make sure that my repair was blending in. As you can see my once damaged cat is now "purrrrrrrfect"!