I am SO ready for Spring!

Can you see the happy plants in the Greenhouse?

Yes I can, very nice set up. Just a little longer now.

I usually count on the last cold spell around Easter. After that, it's usually clear sailing.

We got 3" of snow today! I can never remember it being this cold and wet for days on end. I will try to post pictures tomorrow. I'm supposed to fill an order of 1000+ plants in 3 weeks but at this rate I just don't see it happening I can' even harden them off!
I let my chickens out this morning and they stood there for a second and ran back in the chicken coop. My mare was so spooky she acted like the sky was falling. All my other animals stood under the barn and just looked out. My pigs didn't seem to care but the dogs had a blast.
I usually count on one final cold snap around Easter too, but it has to get warm before it can be called a cold snap!

Hey y'all ~ do you realize how late Easter is this year??? Grrrr! Snowing here right now and has since around 5 with temps hovering at freezing.
Morganc ~ tell us what happy plants are in your GH?

I'm still enjoying the cold winter! Finally we have a winter season and I'm glad to see it. I don't mind losing a few things, in fact, look at as a weeding out process.

Now if I had a commercial plant operation, I'd be mighy concerned. I hope everyone has a bountiful spring, regardless of why you garden.

My big dogs ran and played in the snow as if the grass was tall. My little one bounded off the porch and stopped dead in his tracks, once the cold stuff hit his abd and chest. He was really confused. Awww.

Podster---Our greenhouse is filled with tropicals--bougainvillea, lots of hibiscus, several brugmansias, ixoras, desert rose, and some I can't remember now, :-)

Our Plumerias are in the garage, and we have a queen palm that my husband just rolls in the guest house when it freezes. We always have somewhere to put them.

But.....I wish we had made the greenhouse about 3 times as large and high. Maybe we'll re-do it some day.

easter isnt that late.. it just not early as it is sometimes...lol... its been as late as the 20th of april some years...

I'm also ready for spring and some more sunshine! It's a beautiful day today even if a bit on the cold side. I'll take more days like today, please.

The snow is melting here. I got out and pulled some weeds. Nice to be outside. I am SO ready for spring!

On Sunday, after our big snow event last week, I got out and pulled some weeds and cut some stuff back. It was wonderful to be outside and even better that the weeds came out easily!

How come the freezing temps don't kill the weeds?

Ummm.... they're perennial??? LOL

They must be frost hardy because this winter has zapped some of the perennials I actually wanted.

What perennials have you lost? Is it possible they will come back from the roots? I think over time the weeds have probably evolved to endure these temps. They may not happen often in TX but they happen on occasion and the weeds and some plants will adapt.

I don't know if they are completely gone but they sure don't look as healthy as the weeds do.
I actually think a couple of my plants have died because they have been in the house too long. Every morning it is below 32*, And has been for weeks on end. Maybe the bugs won't be as bad this year.

I don't know on the bugs. I grew up in the cold north and the bugs survived winters that froze 8 feet deep in the ground. They just seemed to get bigger and badder. I suspose the cold winter may damage some of the larva before they have a chance to adapt.

Speaking of bugs... the wierdest thing. I have a bunch of tiny grasshoppers in the house. It seems when I watered one Hoya plant I brought indoors, they hatched. I thought they looked like grasshoppers and when I researched, I found they are nymphs!

I am SO ready for Spring!

That's funny, because its in your house not mine. How long has the plant been in? That's strange I wonder how long the eggs were hanging out before they decided to hatch. I'm trying to write my gardening article for our local paper but the normal dates won't work this year I just don't see the weather being stable enough in 3 weeks to start planting tomatoes.

I brought the plant in about a month ago. It didn't seem to like the cooler temp in the GH. I've watered it a few times and would see an occasional tiny grasshopper and didn't associate it. This last time I watered it, a herd hatched out and they were right around the area of the plant so I must have just caught the hatch.

Tough to try to calculate adequate planting dates for maters or any other seeds. Perhaps you can take the article another direction and discuss protection for tomatoes and other plants that were set out too early..

Nothing has been put out here except cole crops and they should be fine. This is the first year I haven't seen tomato plants for sale yet at the big box stores. Its way to early to plant them but they are usually for sale. I'm going to write about what seeds to sow now radishes, beets, collards, carrots etc., potato towers and why warm weather crops will have to wait. Our usual time is between now and mid March to sow cool weather seeds. I planted mine and they took longer to sprout but they made it through the snow fine.
You need to get some lizards from your GH to take care of those grasshoppers.

Some weeds actually come up and thrive in a typical Texas winter...even this winter there are weeds thriving! Remember that there is a species rye used in turf grass for the cool season....I think it is an annual. Many grasses have value to ranchers because they provide food for cattle or other livestock when other grasses are dormant or dead.

Our local county extension agent called them "winter weeds" in a recent article in the paper. Gave the impression they were normal for this time of year.

Is it spring yet??? Yesterday was a pleasant day and the winds were from the south. Today, it's dreary, drizzly, and cold. Winds from the north. No wonder I can't get well!

Bring on the HEAT!

"Bring on the HEAT!"


YEAH!!!!! Im ready!!!!

SUN please

We have lots of spring buds on trees and shrubs. It really is an uplifting site.

We also have a bumper crops of those round multi-thorned low growing weeds.
The dogs have a hard time traversing across those tough thorns.

I was just looking today, while I was chasing the goat out of my greens garden, that nothing has started to bud out here at all. It still looks like the dead of winter. We have been getting below freezing every night. No, I'm not plantng Broc. for the third time. I don't know why the goat can figure out how to get in but not how to get out.
Lisa

Have you heard of Cabrito? Yum, Yum.

LOL Ken!! I know what that is!

Ken you are bad!!!!! lol. I didn't know what it was so I goggled it.

Lisa,
I kept my goat out by putting up a chicken wire fence and then at the opening there was a metal door that laid on its side supported by two cement bricks on either side. It's kind of hard to imagine I know. The metal door was left in the yard by the landlord. Good luck with your goat.

Tina

This sucker jumped over 24" chicken wire. They aren't usually on my side of the property, I only let the livestock over here when I want to grass mowed. I put some twine around the garden because the corner posts are re-bar and higher. I hope it will help but they'll probably just eat it.
KB-Yes, I did think of Cabrito, but she is so fat and she has a name.
The people that live next to us where missionaries in Africa, after they heard me yelling at the goat they may feel I could use their help, I wasn't calling her by her name then!
Lisa

I think "Cabrito" is an excellent name for a goat!

Thanks for the good laugh, Lisa!

Today is beautiful, feels like spring. Completely different from yesterday, and maybe rain tomorrow. I have started potting up my tomatos they look a lot smaller in their new containers. NO goat in the garden today.
Stephanie-I'm glad it made you laugh. It was kinda funny, I make my kids swear that they will never tell their kids the things I've done. I don't want them to think crazy people run in the family, well maybe on their father's side.
Seeing a 45 year old woman chasing and cussing at a goat in a 17'-25' area must have been a site
Lisa

I didnt know what Cabrito was either... now I do...lol.

Yum! Just the thought makes me hungry. But if it has a name, I guess you really couldn't do it. Crow, wishing (and praying) for the best recovery for DH.

Crow! What wonderful news about your DH! Praying he continues to regain strength and improve every day.

Glad you were able to get out and about today as well. It was certainly a gorgeous day in Texas!

Lisa,
I do the same with my son. I don't want him to tell his gf, or her family or anyone else. Thank goodness he doesn't have one yet.
Thanks for the laughs.

Tina

It was a beautiful day here in the big L - C, and I am definately ready for spring!! I bought two doses of beneficial nematodes recently and yesterday evening I deployed them in my backyard (I have to say "deploy" because they are my secret weapon.) Hopefully, I will be one step ahead of the fire ants who always seem to make themselves at home in any garden bed I create. But this time, it will be ME laughing at THEM!!! I hope the nematodes are successful and I did not waste my money on a flea circus...

Nematodes always work for us, John.