Ed I'm in Auburn right now and I'm not happy about these black low hanging clouds I

Well this was as far as I got when the vet came out to talk to us about my brother's dog.(getting chemo) We got on the road and I told bro' that the clouds in the rear view mirror looked really bad. We were on the interstate for literally 2 mins and that emergency sound came on the radio. Severe thunderstorms for Lee county et al and I'm thinking well I called it.(Kabby always likes to be right.)
Home safe and sound, my menagerie to greet me. No more drama and this Auburn fan hopes the Crimson Tide rolls tomorrow!

Kabby, glad you made it home safe and sound. That was a strong storm system that came through. My sister lives in Columbus, GA, and she texted me about it...was pretty heavy with lots of lightening but she came through it ok. I'm not sure if any damage was done from it. I looked at the radar and it had a large pinkish-purple color to it...those colors in radar images always concern me. Lee County doesn't need another storm to come through there, the last big one was a tragedy.

I wish your nephew-dog well,

Hey, thanks for the well wishes for the Tide....ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!

The search is on this morning for the 40 missing degrees! <insert dramatic frown & foul language!!>

19 this morning, and the lettuce, broccoli and other potted plants wearing fleece blankets. Not much else going on gardening, except for drooling over all the seed catalogs I've gotten.
Wooooo, Pig, Suuie! Razorbacks! It's been years since I've watched a game, but watched the Hogs play the Outback Bowl against Penn State in Tampa, Florida. Wow, what a game! Kept me on the edge of my seat for sure.

We woke to serious frost this morning (zone 7b north Georgia mountains) - 22 degrees last night! Hopefully that should kill off some fungus spores and a few bugs - including those pesky Joro spiders! Though sunny, it will stay too cold for outside gardening today, so I will continue my treasure hunt through plant receipts and journals to see if I can find hints to forgotten treasures in my garden.

Boy, do I wish that low temps WOULD kill off some bugs…. Didn't seem to work here, since we had a whole week of temps below 32 last February and several nights of sub zero temps and the bugs were as bad as I've ever seen them this past summer. We seem to have bad bugs in waves each year, and this summer was the year of army worms, stink bugs and Japanese beetles. I'll bet for every Japanese beetle I killed 5 got away. I even killed several mated pairs which indicates I will have to do milky spore on the yard this year or the grubs will eat my grass. Ugh.

In retrospect over the past 3 months, there WAS a fall here, an amazing one! I've already submitted my order to repeat the same thing next year, but we'll see. Any time after about the 3rd week of October, a 1st hard frost is fair game but I'll take delivery as late as possible for any year!

We had a relatively mild winter last yr except when the big TX freeze came through in Feb. Last summer was the first time I never had leaf rollers on my cannas. It's amusing as I had started another thread on the SE forum bragging about no leaf rollers and they were there about a week later.
I have to go look up Joro spiders now Lori. When I glance at your name I think to myself if Lori is from MT why is she hanging out in the SE forum? It's ok, even if you really were from there you'd be welcome here! Was that really supposed to be -22? Brrrr!
Lynda sorry about the Japanese beetles. The stink bugs as you mentioned and aphids are my worst culprit here. Aphids are notorious for spreading viruses and I have
bookoodles of them.
Looks like the SEC is going to be tearing up some turf in the championship game. Georgia really blasted Michigan, we'll see if Bama goes for 2 in a row! Ed I'm I'm going to dig out Jerry's crimson jersey and see if we can GitRdone!

Kabby said:
Looks like the SEC is going to be tearing up some turf in the championship game. Georgia really blasted Michigan, we'll see if Bama goes for 2 in a row! Ed I'm I'm going to dig out Jerry's crimson jersey and see if we can GitRdone!

There ya go!!! Get that jersey on and let some "ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!'s roll!!!!! 🐘🐘🐘

Kabby, I understand the confusion in thinking MT is Montana. Actually M is my middle initial and T is my last initial. I am originally from Ohio, but I have been in Georgia for almost 45 years, and I am still learning about gardening in the south. It seems like there is always a new challenge - daylily rust, blueberry mummy berry disease, joro spiders. Certainly keeps things interesting.

Daylily rust. Ugh. I remember the first time it showed up in my flower beds, it was on a GIFT plant. I wanted to cry, I had avoided it for 3 yrs.
White flies, I truly have not seen a white fly since the blizzard of '93. I used to keep them on my tomato plants.
The Joro spiders are huge, good grief. I bought my first blueberry bush last fall, now there are mummies afoot!

I had a huge number of orb spiders this fall. I do like spiders, but had never before noticed so many. Spiders are good guys, IMO. Look at this beauty!
And I was privileged to have two wheel bugs come to live in my yard. I didn't even know what they were; I learned about them on this website. There are some very good bugs out there. I try to learn to distinguish them from the bad bugs.

I have seen those in the garden, never knew what they were. It appears they have quite a strong bite (worse than a wasp).

A lot of bugs bite, and some can be quite painful. I usually hand pick stink bugs, and have been nipped by them more than once. The worst bite I've ever gotten was from a horsefly. It made a lump the size of a baseball on me!