Well so far the storms have been mostly rain and this afternoon (SAT) we get about a 1/2 inch of sleet and then back to rain. Maybe we wont get alot of snow if the temp stays up enough. I am just getting to see my younger blueberry plants and if the weather stays nice this week like it is suposed to might beable to get outside to do a little bit. All will tell by morning. I think I am going to start some seeds soon. I know I should wait another few weeks. Maybe I will give it another 2 weeks and call it close enough to April. We have a few bulbs already sprouting that we bought sitting in the house. They need to be potted I think. At least until I can get them outside. My agenda is set to finish spring cleaning this week and early next week at both houses so I am ready to work outside and spring clean the berry field and garden ASAP. When the weather finally decides it is spring I will be ready to rumble.

Hi Carol, glad you're back, ok, and congrats on the new computer. I've got one with those big screens, they are really fantastic, but I'm so used to getting around fast on my pc, I mainly still use that. The new one is a lot different, I've learned to do a lot of things already, but it's like learning Windows again from the ground up and frustrating to have to look up how to do the simplest little thing. My daughter loves to watch youtube videos on it with her little boy. The sound drives me nutz, and I found how to turn it up or down in the system controls. Got fed up with that, looked it up, and see there are two keys where the function keys are on my pc for adjusting the volume up or down. Very slick. Simple things like that I get stuck for awhile. I think I WS'ed my crazy daisies in about February 2 years ago, planted the whole jug hos. Am almost positive I didn't spring sow them. Think they bloomed the first year, too. Mine have all different variations. Can send you some more seeds in the fall if I mark a choicer bloom or several. I notice my New England Purple Dome Asters have seeds up the wazoo. I don't know if it's too late to collect them but think I will but won't have time to mess with trades until I get caught up on other things. I'll make sure they are dried out well and seal them up for later.

I hadn't tried them for years but dug out a few this year - when it turned out I probably didn't need them - and still happened to have the instruction sheet (something I rarely hang on to). It says something like gently squeeze most of the water out of each tube and carefully lift up over the plant. Yeah, right! Took wife and I both and we could have used a 5th hand but we did get them off with no damage to the plants, just soaked jeans and feet for us. I think the trick is to get them off before the plant gets too big. But I do have to admit that those 3 plants are well ahead of the others recently planted. They have fruit set on them and I normally wouldn't even be planting out for another 2 weeks. Dave

Hello all, this is my first post on GardenWeb, after reading it for many years. It is a very informative site and I've used a lot of the info. A little background, we're in eastern Kentucky on my wife's family farm in zone 6B. It is a really nice place to live, clean air and water, and quiet in an isolated rural setting. I lived in Texas for 30 years, in the suburbs of Dallas. I really enjoy that we get 4 real seasons here, as opposed to the brutal summers and pseudo fall and winters in Texas. It was fine there, but the wife and I moved here to be more self-sufficient and get out of the big city. We were getting progressively alarmed at the spiritual, economic and social decline of things, and thought we ought to take the opportunity and get out of Dodge, so to speak. But, that is a whole other story. We're in the foothills of the Appalachians, in a valley, on an eastern facing slope with good exposure to the sun, getting about 8 hours of direct sun on average thru the spring to fall. Our weather is warm, not really hot, somewhat humid summers. It rarely been above 90 degrees here the two years we've been here. It cools off pretty quickly when the sun dips behind the hills to our west, so we don't get as many hours of direct sun as a flatter location. The nights are very comfortable, usually in the 60's on the warmest nights. It's spring here now, with the dogwoods and wild apple trees blooming and the other trees just leafing out, beautiful. But the winters, oh boy. Living in Texas all those mildish winters there spoiled me. Last winter, 2014-15, was the worst I've ever experienced. Some nights were below zero, with one pleasant night of 14 below, which just happened to take out our water lines. I spent the next couple days under the house playing junior plumber to fix that issue- nice. Plus, a couple one foot snowfalls among others. Even the long time residents said that it was one of the worst in recent memory. I'm sure folks from New England or more northern climes are rolling their eyes about my winter complaints right now. But, this winter was not too bad, just a few nights in single digits and a couple 6 inch snows. I do think that I am getting a bit more used to it though, just have to layer on more clothes. OK, enough background info. This winter/spring I got the fruit tree bug, and thought I'd take advantage of our acreage and start a little orchard to augment our vegetable garden output. We just finished planting the last of the trees, and hopefully that will be it for a while. Maybe. From what I've gathered from this forum, fruit tree planting can be somewhat addictive, so I hope I can control it. We'll see. Anyhow, I will provide a tree report soon on what we've done. I look forward to to future correspondence with GardenWeb gang.