Kathy, we're in Mississippi on the Gulf. Biloxi/Gulfport area right off the beach. Harrison County.I hope your husband will be safe,I'll be thinking of you both. The DH is driving about, he just called a while ago to say the National Guard has been posted along Highway 90 and along Highway 49.After Katrina they laid out razor wire so no one would go south of the railroad tracks. Lots of out of town power company trucks already, the news online says expect 12 hours of storm. Katrina was 8 hours..so...WOW..they still have homes destroyed by Katrina marked with those big "x"s ( homes where they found dead bodies) and where is Jim Cantore?? where ever he is, we should all go the opposite direction! lol He was here the 28th for the Katrina anniversary...I hope he left town! Here is a link that might be useful: my local newspaper SunHerald.Com

Heather, The trellis looks nice and sturdy. Carol, I'm glad you got the bean seeds in the ground. I have 7 types of bush beans in the ground--four types went in about a month ago and, if the weather doesn't get them, they are almost blooming size already. The three other types went in about 10 days ago and only have a couple of true leaves. I think 4 of the 7 are romano types--but in different colors. I have a pink one (Tanya's Pink Pod), a purple one (Purpuriat) and golden one and a green one and I don't remember the name of either without going and looking them up because my brain doesn't remember much of anything from a month ago. Of the three I planted more recently, I do remember that one of them is Red Swan, which is one of Robert Lobitz's crosses that involved a pinto bean and a green bean, and another is a white half-runner, which I spaced pretty widely cause they get kinda big. I hope to plant pole beans next week if the soil isn't too wet in the area where I want to put them. That will depend on how much rain falls here. My big production onion bed is in the Peter Rabbit Garden this year covered with hoops with bird netting to keep out digging critters. My other onion bed in the main garden has struggled with being too wet for too long, so I've been harvesting those as green onions for fresh eating for weeks now. I harvested in selected areas, leaving 'holes' in the densely-planted bed. I went back last week and plugged 13 tomato plants into that bed--mostly late-season producers like Mortgage Lifter and Phoenix and a few of the varieties from The Dwarf Project. In another month or so those plants will be a lot bigger, but by then I will have harvested all the onion plants close to the tomato plants. By the end of May, it is likely it will be only a tomato bed and not an onion-tomato bed. I felt slothful and lazy after reading how some of you had covered up your plants, so I went out last night and covered up the stock tank tub planter that has the 4 plants I planted in February. I had to use a ladder to attach shade cloth to the top of the cages. I also covered the cattle trough that has lettuce plants, a few beet plants for young beet greens, and 19 tiny tomato plants---most of them are Red Robin, Pixie Orange and Canary Yellow, but also Little Sun and a couple of others I haven't grown before. These all will stay small--maybe 18" tall and produce cherry-sized toms. Tim likes to be able to step right out the back door, walk a few feet and pick a handful of fresh cherry tomatoes for salad. (He isn't out in the garden all day like me, eating them right off the plant like they are candy!) Right now it looks a little crowded, but as lettuce plants come out, the tomatoes will have more room. Using all these creative planting techniques, I've been able to plant more tomatoes than usual. I counted my plants last night while I was out there, and I have 172 plants in the ground and 39 in containers. If the weather is halfway cooperative, I should be able to can all the tomatoes and salsa I want this summer, dehydrate gazillions of them, and have plenty to share with extended family and friends for fresh eating. I started a second round of tomato plants a couple of days before March ended. Those plants are only about 3" tall now but when they are bigger they will be plugged into the big garden wherever cool-season stuff is coming out, and some will go into containers. I had meant to start them earlier than I did, but got so caught up in all the early planting that I just didn't get around to it. With weather like this,having 4 flats of tiny tomatoes is kind of comforting. If the garden gets smashed, I have smaller, younger replacement tomatoes in addition to the big old backup plants in the greenhouse, which hopefully are destined for the Spring Fling. I have planted more veggies than usual in the space I have in the garden, but fewer flowers in a dedicated border on the southern edge by the driveway because I put 23 tomato plants in that border, with the flowers squeezed to either corner of that bed. There's other flowers scattered around in each veggie bed too. I still have room for all the pepper plants, some southern peas, pole beans, okra, squash (I have 7 plants out there already) and late corn, and maybe melons. It is likely I'll rototill a new area behind the barn for late corn and more squash and southern peas. I thought we'd have that done by now, but that area has been too wet to rototill since at least December. So, it sits in the back of my mind as the major item on my 'to do' list as soon as the soil is dry enough for it. Susan, If our weather is a smorgasborg, why can't we just say "no thanks" and hide our plates behind our back? I know we need weather, including rainy weather, but all this crazy weather sure does drive gardeners to the brink of insanity at times. Clearly our risk is lower down here in southcentral OK than it is in central OK and points northward, but I'm not letting down my guard at all. Dawn

Hi All! You may have read here that I like to walk the dog along the Erie Canal because she's a bit frisky and I can't let her off the leash. When the backyard is muddy it ain't a place for her to be, so the cindered Canal trail is the place to go. Several weeks ago on a similar "Unusual Warm Weather" post I mentioned seeing a frog, a garden snake (both well past hibernation time) and a mink. Last week I saw the mink again. So on Friday of last week when we had that nice weather, the morning was filled with blue sky and sun, and with a muddy backyard off to the Canal. Because of the mink I took a pair of 12x50 binoculars as I was hoping to get a closer look. As I perused the other side of the Canal I heard a Robin to my back. The bino's aren't for birding but as I scanned the tree line I noticed 3 Robins perched. As I watched this seemingly refreshing sight I noticed something fly through the field of view, then another, then another. As I tried to see what they were I came upon several. I'd never seen a bird that looked exactly like this? The area is heavily brushed and I wasn't sure how many I saw during the time I observed along the 100 yard area. I had a bird book at home and I paid attention to the colors and when I found them in the book it's no wonder I'd never seen them before. The book says "This handsome bird of the North Woods is a rare visitor to the Northeast in Winter. When it appears, often in large flocks, it feeds on berries. (Which they were devouring.) The book added, "To be able to see them this way is an unforgettable event." It says they are "Highly Social" and they must also be to humans as they flew back and forth over the Canal in numbers of 5 to 10. They never flew at me but when my back was turned they flew over my shoulder maybe 4 or 5 feet away that I could hear there wings flutter in the still. Nova was moving back and forth and they didn't appear to be afraid. They were almost like Chickadees. I don't now how many because of the heavy brush but at least 25 to 50 or maybe even more. I found them to be from the book the Bohemian Waxwing. I observed them for over 1/2 hour and what a sight to behold. If you've never seen a Bohemian Waxwing paste this site or go to Google for more photos, you won't be disappointed. http://www.pbase.com/rlortie/image/37670997 Now it's back to shoveling off the deck. Darn! Jim

Deee, I feel certain that you should be okay - perhaps just some much needed rain and heavy winds! We are just miles up the coast from Savannah, on the river in Bluffton, SC. It has been a windy day on the river, but sunny and so far not anything too significant. Brought in all the floats and light furniture from the dock, where we found an otter family nesting under our floating dock. That was fun, seeing the river otters frolicking right there under our dock! I spent the afternoon planting in the garden, instead of floating in the river as we often do on weekends. Hopefully we will get some much needed rain from this storm, it has been so dry we have had to water daily and the soil is still dry as a bone. St. Simon�s is a lovely area, we used to spend a lot of time there when younger. DH has cousins who live on a street right off the beach where we used to vacation often. Be safe and have a great weekend!