Cool season annuals are those planted in early spring/early fall (in places with mild winters) and usually replaced by warm season annuals when it starts to get hot. They look the best when nights are in the 40s, but many are hardy (tolerate frosts) and some can make it through the summer.. they just won't look as good. The most common are: pansy, viola, sweet alyssum, linaria, diascia, nemesia, snapdragon, lobelia, bacopa, dianthus, cornflower, calendula, nasturtium, stock, poppies, ornamental kale and cabbage, sweet pea, argyranthemum, regal geraniums, dusty miller, primrose, larkspur and delphinium. Some of those might be perennials in you climate. The list of warm season annuals is endless and I could name hundreds, but they're basically all the annuals that weren't listed above. I just wanted to point that in late April you'll most likely use only cool season annuals, as it'll probably be too cold to the warm season ones get going. Mauricio

Marsha, here's a summary of my wintersown grass from seed last year: 2005, winterwsown ornamental grasses: Roughly, the code is as follows: Cells sprouted/cells sown, # seeds per cell, Name, (source (SG=self-gathered)) - how sown, S= surface, LC= lightly covered 2/12/2005 Flat #14 8/8 cells, 3 Festuca glauca (Park's) - S 8/8 cells, 13 Festuca glauca (Park's) - S 1/1 cell, 30 Festuca glauca (Park's) - S 15/15 cells, 14-15 Festuca glauca (trade) - S 8/8 cells, 9 Festuca scoparia (Jelitto) - S 8/8 cells, 9 Festuca mairei (Jelitto) - S 8/8 cells, 9 Festuca gigantea (Jelitto) - S 0/8 cells, 9 Pennisetum 'Burgundy Giant'(trade) - S 2/14/2005 Flat #15 0/8 cells, 20-25 Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster's Feather Reed Grass'(trade) - S 0/8 cells, 6 "Bamboo 7-9'" individual seeds(trade) - S 0/8 cells, 3 'pods' of 2-3 seeds, "Bamboo 7-9' "(trade) - S 0/8 cells, 5 "Tall ornamental grass, 8-10' large reeds"(trade) - S 8/8 cells, 10 "Foxtail type grass"(trade) - S * was Setaria faberi 0/8 cells, 15-20 "Grass, tall & feathery"(trade) - S 8/8 cells, 5 "Grass, tall, reddish top"(trade) - S * was Tridens flavus 0/8 cells, 5 Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum'(trade) - S Flat #16 0/16 cells, 9-10 Anthoxanthum odoratum, (SG04) - S 15/16 cells, 8 Anthoxanthum odoratum, (Jelitto) - S 4/4 cells, 5 "Quaking Grass" (trade, larger than B.media seeds, may be B.maxima) - S 10/12 cells, 15 Briza media (Jelitto) - S 8/8 cells, 8 Briza maxima (trade) - S 0/8 cells, Cyperus alternifolius (trade)seeds & chaff, sowed heavily and mixed in a bit Flat #5 cont. 4/Added 8 cells, Carex grayi (trade) for 2-4 warmstrat - LC Flat #17 16/16 cells, Carex unknown, small fine volunteers, heavily sowed (SG04)- S 14/16 cells, 9 Carex muskingumensis (Jelitto) - S 14/16 cells, 5 Chasmanthium latifolium (Trade and SG04) - S 8/16 cells, 5 Chasmanthium latifolium (Jelitto) - S 2/15/2005 Flat #18 16/16 cells, Cortaderia selloana (trade)heavily sowed, w/chaff - S 0/16 cells, 9 Erianthus ravennae (trade)w/chaff - S 0/8 cells, ~15 Helictotrichon sempervirens (trade)w/chaff - S 5/8 cells, 9 Hystrix patula (Jelitto) - S 5/16 cells, 8 Lagurus ovatus (trade) hulled - S 2/16/2005 Flat #19 0/8 cells, 6 Leymus (trade)hulled - LC 0/24 cells, 5-6 Liriope minor (trade) - LC 11/32 cells, 8 Luzula nivea (Jelitto) - S 2/17/2005 Flat #20 13/24 cells, 5-6 Luzula sylvatica 'Select' (Jelitto) - S 0/8 cells, 5 Miscanthus sinensis condensatus 'Cosmopolitan' (trade source 1) - S 0/8 cells, 8 Miscanthus sinensis condensatus 'Cosmopolitan' (trade source 2) - S 0/8 cells, 8 "Variegated Japanese Grass" (trade) - S 0/8 cells, 8 Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus' (trade) - S 0/8 cells, 8 Miscanthus "Unknownus" (trade) - S Flat #21 0/8 cells, 10 Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus' (trade source 1) - S 0/8 cells, 10 Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus' (trade source 2) - S 1/8 cells, 9 Miscanthus sinensis 'Central Park' (trade) - S 0/8 cells, 9 Miscanthus sinensis 'New Hybrids' (SG04 1st bloomers) - S 0/8 cells, 9 Miscanthus sinensis 'New Hybrids' (SG04 2nd bloomers) - S 6/8 cells, 9 Miscanthus sinensis 'New Hybrids' (SG04 full mix) - S 2/16 cells, 6 Millium effusum 'Aureum' (Jelitto) - S Flat #22 31/32 cells, 12 Muhlenbergia capillaris (trade) - S * was Eragrostis spectabilis 0/16 cells, 3 Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' (trade)hulled - S 0/16 cells, 5 Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' (trade)hulled - S 2/19/2005 Flat #23 24/24 cells, 9 Pennisetum alopecuroides (SG04)hulled - S 12/24 cells, 9 Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Moudry'(trade)hulled - S 0/8 cells, 6-7 Pennisetum ? "Dwarf Fountain Grass" (trade)hulled - S 0/8 cells, 5 Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' (trade)hulled - S 2/20/2005 Flat #24 16/16 cells, 9 Sesleria caerulea (Jellito) - S 0/16 cells, 9 Sesleria nitida (Jellito) - S 7/8 cells, 9 Stipa capillata (Jelitto) - S 3/16 cells, 9 Nassella tenuissima (AKA Stipa tenuissima) (Jellito) - S 0/8 cells, 5 Tripsacum dactyloides (trade)hulled - LC Summary: 704 cells sown with several thousand seeds, 51 varieties. 308 cells sprouted, 43.7% Notes: Cultivar grasses like named Miscanthus and Feather Reed, did not, for the most part, sprout. Neither did 'Purple' Pennisetums, and a few of the unknown 'Bamboo' described trades. Cold season grasses seemed to sprout at a higher percentage than warm season grasses. I'll confirm this next year, and spring-sow warm season grasses, after wintersowing cool season grasses. Some Jelitto sourced seeds did well, others did poorly. Where I still have some left, I'll spring sow them next year. I ran out of flats last winter, and did no spring sowing. M.s. 'New Hybrids' have two distinctly different bloom times, but the seeds gathered from each blooming did not sprout at all. They may not have been ripe. The last batch gathered was a mix of both, and were left on the plants much longer. They sprouted, but not as well as spring-sown seeds 2 years ago, and direct-sown seeds this year. Clumping grasses: Festuca glauca cells were sown with from 3 to 30 seeds each. Today, you can't tell the difference between the clumps. Briza maxima, an annual grass, self-seeded vigorously before I harvested the seeds. Setaria faberi, Giant Foxtail, an annual, is extremely vigorous. It reached 5+' from seed, and seedheads were higher. To prevent reseeding, I cut it to the ground in early September, before seeds were ripe. It grew back to 1.5' and threw up new seedheads. Eragrostis spectabilis, traded to me as Pink Muhly, is a fantastic grass. It's got a gorgeous pinkish-purple cloud-like infloresence that lasts for 2 months, so far, and is very fine. The flowers catch moisture droplets out of humid air or rain, and glisten nicely. It also germinates beautifully (96.8%). Highly recommended as a massing grass or low border. Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty' was a real disappointment, but I'm going to do them again. I got no sprouts from 40 cells, 3-5 seeds each. Next year I'm going to try them again, in a variety of ways, from WS to spring-sowing to direct-sowing.

Jacob, Every year I always hope that the first frost of autumn will be later than average. It rarely is. There was one glorious year in the early to mid-2000s when the first frost/freeze (and it was both at once) didn't arrive until around December 17th or 18th. We had the best fall garden production that year anyway, and then it got to go on and on and on forever. We went from not having had a single frost or freeze to dropping down into the mid-teens. It was a very dramatic ending to the growing season. Filling the garage/shop (1200 square feet of space) with 'stuff' wasn't as big of an issue 10-15 years ago as it is now because Tim always knew exactly where everything was. It might have looked like a mess to other people, but he could walk in there and instantly find what he needed/wanted (though no one else could) no matter how small or obscure it was. The problem is that as you get older, your memory gets worse and now that he is in his 60s, he has a harder time finding stuff. When you cannot find what you need after much searching, you go buy a replacement. I think when we do clean up and reorganize the garage, we'll find duplicates of a lot of tools and things. To me, that's a sign we need to clean it up and organize it. And, so we shall, hopefully on a few winter weekends. Our trees have done about the same as yours. One day last week I saw a few glimmers of red and yellow foliage in our woodland areas but everything mostly was green still, and this week the there has been an explosion of color. I am so excited. We often go from green foliage to falling brown foliage literally overnight, so to have a year where we are having glorious reds, yellows and golds is awesome. I want to enjoy every minute of it because it likely will be several years before we have such good autumn color again down here. Nancy, It is SO true that the older one gets, the older that 'old' gets pushed out there into a higher age range. When we moved here, we were barely 40 and had moved into an old farm and ranch neighborhood where everyone here had lived here pretty much their whole lives. Most of them were in their 60s, 70s, or 80s and seemed impossibly old to us, although our next-door neighbors were about our age. Some of our new neighbors had kids our age or older, all of them were grandparents or great grandparents. Not some of them are great-, great-grandparents. Of the original neighbors still alive, most are in their 80s or 90s, and to us, 60 no longer seems old at all. (grin) Even the 80 year olds don't seem as old to us now as they once did because we're getting closer in age to them. When a younger family moves into our neighborhood now, I am all too aware that they undoubtedly see us as the old folks..... The bad thing about moving into a neighborhood where almost everyone is so much older than you is that you find yourself going to tons of funerals over the years. But, then, on the other hand it is an awesome blessing to have neighbors you love and adore so much that you truly grieve for them after they pass away. I'm glad you can see in the formerly dark room. I have been amazed to discover how much good lighting can improve any space. Larry, That tree is gorgeous! Nancy, I totally understand about wanting someone to be at home taking care of the animals. That is what we usually do, and it usually is Tim who travels to PA for family stuff, and I stay here and mind the zoo. It isn't that I don't want to go to PA with him, but rather that it just would be so hard to find someone to take care of all our dogs, cats and chickens. When you go, I wish you safe travels. Cats are such a hoot! They are incredibly entertaining and, yet, they steal inside your soul and capture your heart as well. When going through a box of stuff in the closet the other day, I came across a calendar I had saved from 2014 because the cat poems in it are too precious and at the same time hysterically funny. The cat calendar is entitled "I Could Pee On This" and it has a cat poem (theoretically written by the cat in that month's photo) and I believe it is the January cat who wrote "I Could Pee On This". That poem completely cracks me up because it is so true---if you seriously upset some cats, they will retaliate by peeing on something precious to you. Earlier this week, two of our cats were playing with each other---but one (Lucky) was inside sitting on the desk in the girls' room and the other one (Pumpkin) was outside. They were play fighting with one another, separated by the window. I had a hard time focusing on the cleaning task at hand because I was watching them and laughing at them. We finally had sunshine on Friday. It was pretty chilly for much of the day, but got a little warm in the afternoon. The important thing was that we had the sunshine! The foliage here still is largely green, but there's big bursts of reds, golds and yellows now scattered around all over---still mostly elms, persimmon groves and, for the red foliage, a handful of red oaks (most red oaks are just beginning to change color), sumac, ornamental pears, Chinese pistache, and poison ivy. For anyone who doesn't think they have poison ivy running wild in their native woodland areas here, all you have to do is stand and look into the woods and you'll see the poison ivy now a scarlet red wherever it has climbed upward through the trees. Later on the Virginia creeper vines will change color as well. There's still a lot of red in the garden, mostly in the form of the flowers of zinnias, pineapple sage and Texas hummingbird sage. Oh, and autumn sage of course. I'm going to miss all these colors when frost and freezing temperatures arrive and take them away from us. We're supposed to hit the lower 80s today and tomorrow, so I hope everyone will remember to watch for increased snake activity. Why are we hitting the 80s? Well, I'm not complaining, but it is making me rethink my costume for tonight's Halloween party. I based the costume (I'm going to be a black cat) on wearing a black sweatsuit. Hmmm. That might be too warm, so I guess I'll switch to lighterweight black clothing and attach my cat tail and cat accessories to those clothing items. Here in OK, you never know if Halloween will be hot/warm or freezing cold. I think the actual Halloween will have cold, rainy weather, but most of the community Halloween stuff here is happening this weekend during the heat wave. Of course it is. At least the kids who go to the Trunk or Treat event in town tonight won't have to wear coats over their costumes. I saw some persimmons on one of our trees yesterday and am going to try to get them today (they're too high to reach but maybe I can knock them down with a pruning pole). I want to cut them open and see if the southern OK persimmons also are showing spoons like those in other parts of the state and the country. Dawn

Thanks Fred. It's actually a lovely cream with some green in it. I've seen pictures of some that are quite green with darker markings but I'm happy with mine. Cindy, that was Jody! ;-) But I am certainly sorry you are battling drought! Last summer we had nearly the entire summer without rain in my neck of the woods, not pleasant to go through especially when just 50 miles or so north they had more rain than us. Good luck with the watering! Donna☺☺