Martin, I see right now, what you really need is some East Tx. Gophers to help you maintain that beautiful yard! A mound here & a mound there would greatly enhance that Golf Course looking yard! I could trap you a Male & Female pair,they have a lot in common with rabbits if ya get the drift. I already have your address so we know where to send them! Do I need to set my traps for that kindly offer? Your East Tx Friend ;) Cecil

The coldest we got over the weekend was 17F -- Hazel Dell area of Vancouver, WA -- as a transplanted Midwesterner, that *should* feel relatively warm for a winter low, but I've acclimatized to this area and don't care for anything below freezing! As far as I can tell, no damage done to plants in bud, etc., but time will tell... winter hazel and daphne are loaded with flower buds and ready to pop. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but since the buds are still pretty tight I'm thinking they'll be ok. Think Spring! (actually, it's here, even with the cold snap, or at least that's what the daffs, flowering plums, forsythia, etc., are saying. Bring it on!).

Scott, Are you serious? 22? How many hours did y'all stay that cold? Lee, When you said "May 10th" I felt sick, and then I read on and saw it would be only the 40s. Well, heck, compared to last night, the 40s are a piece of cake. Thanks for the heads up, though. It is a reminder that cold weather still can slap us around in May. I start putting more tomato plants in the ground tomorrow. And, for anyone interested, I covered up every planted row with my DeWitt 10-degree frost blanket, even the cool-season crops that didn't really need it. I figured since I had it, I'd use it. We were below freezing for about six hours, much of that time at 28 degrees, and there is not one speck of damage on anything growing in those rows that I covered, and that includes summer annual flowers growing as companion plants in the veggie beds. Next year I am going to plant more stuff earlier and just drag out the row cover as needed. There is a lot of dead foliage on trees and vines (trumpet creeper) that had leafed out, and my pecan tree got hit fairly hard, and now the tiny little leaves are shriveled up and just look sad. However, all those will bounce back fast. The comfrey was in bloom and was feeding tons of bees a day, and it froze back to the ground, but will regrow quickly. Considering how cold it got and how long it stayed before freezing, the amount of damage on trees, shrubs and vines is minimal and not unexpected. I heard the helicopters seem to have saved the peach crops at Livesay's Orchard in Porter. Yay! Dawn

Melissia, It sure does look like long john weather. Moni, I figured that, being from German, you'd be used to these gray skies. My DH grew up in Pennsylvania and couldn't wait to move "down south" after college so he could live somewhere warm and sunny (relatively speaking). He hates the gray skies as much as you and I do. I hope the sun hasn't gone on a long vacation. We need the sunlight. Dawn