Michelle, It is 3:35 p.m. and I am watching The Weather Channel and it sounds like Arkansas is really getting it already and conditions are supposed to worsen, so I guess the Fort Smith forecasters may "ignore" ya'll even more if you're not having the ice too. Yes, we can hope we're wrong, but "in my bones" I feel like it is going to be a bad one. I can tell by the number of birds coming to feed, and we have huge numbers today. I just refilled the feeders and put out deer corn an hour ago, and the birds are having a big old pre-storm feeding frenzy right now. Randy and I both use the Weather Underground a lot and I love their forecasts. If you've never used it, you can access it via www.wunderground.com. Randy, I agree about the internet accuracy, but I have to say that our local TV forecast (Channel 12, KXII, the local CBS affiliate) has improved a lot since Steve LaNore became their chief meterologist. Still, I take it with a grain of salt and merge together their forecast, various online sources, the NWS and my own "intuition" to arrive at my own idea about what I think "will" or "might" happen. I bet the Eskies had fun. If it snows, and they get to go out and play in it, I hope you'll take a photo of them to share with us. Ada, Uh-oh. That's not good news. Y'all be careful. I think the perennials will be OK as long as their roots weren't bone dry. If they were bone-dry, you might have some root death. After all my bragging about what a fine job our local electric co-op does keeping the power up, I saw we're now forecast to get about 1/2 inch of ice here. Well, if that happens, the trees won't even have to bring down the poles and power lines, because the ice on the power lines will bring everything down all by itself. Oh, I dread the power being out. Our house is all-electric, so if we lose power, we're gonna be cold. Moni, I'm glad you're hubby is going to be able to make it home safely before the icing gets worse and the roads are even more dangerous. We went out and did all our errands early. Now we're just waiting for the fire pagers to go off, because as soon as the temps hit 32, the accidents start popping up on the Interstate like dandelions pop up in our pastures in spring. I don't really understand the sudden ice storm trend the last 5 or 6 years. Our first few years here, we had some gorgeous snowstorms and that was so much fun for someone like me who grew up in snow-deprived Fort Worth. These last few years, though, it is all ice and no snow. I'd rather have snow. Well, if I had a choice, I'd rather have 6" of rain and nothing frozen, but that's not gonna happen! Dawn

Hi Mike !! I think it looks like a normal cutting getting ready to wake up and enjoy the growing season!! Great job!! Emily is spot on about the radiant heat that will or could burn the stem. If you keep it like this in the heat of the summer, you wil most likely have some burn. You could always cut the black plastic down to a 1/4 to 1/2 inch above the soil line and let it get established this summer, then next year just pot up to a container ( around the same size it is In Now..). That way you will eliminate the worry about burning the stem and messing with repotting now.. If you like the rocks.. Just move them from touching the stem itself. If you are using them to keep it secure, you could always use a little stake on either side and use tape to secure. Looks wonderful!! ;-) Laura

Last night it went down to 49F at my house ! And the 'in ground' tomatoes are still all green! Can you spell panic? In a fit of web research, I found two references to cutting a trench around the base of the plants to shock the roots, causing the plant to do everything it could to ripen tomatoes. Two plants will be getting that treatment later today unless something or someone pries that trowel from my determined hands. Yesterday while driving DW to various garage sales, I met a fellow with small tomato plants but lots of ripe fruit. His plants were about one foot from his stucco walled house, nice and warm at night and shielded from the crazy winds. 400 feet lower in elevaton. Got only "Afternoon Sun", but thats ok here. They were wilted from lack of water, but he said "That happens", where as I do all I can to fight any wilt. He only used 5 year old all purpose Miracle Grow, nothing else. Fertilized twice all season. (maybe tonite about 11pm I will sneak over there and poach a few to see how they taste..... not really-but tempting) Frustration. I raised these seedlings in a greenhouse, have 10 different types of ferilizer, 30 containers, and sooo much research, But it seems nothing subsitutes for keeping that night time temperature as warm as posssible here in the Rockies.

We are so sad to hear of the storms and death across the south. We live in Missouri and are dealing with flood and tornado damage.It is sad to see all the destruction of habitat due to the storms but when it is in a forest everthing is recycled by nature. We had a abadoned railway that had trees and wildflowers . We could walk about 2 miles and see nothing but nature. This is in the process of being cut down piled up and burnt what an assault on nature. This is really disturbing to me.