That front you are just getting seems to be stuck in neutral here. We had rain all day and all night (mostly light) and have had nothing but a cold mist all day. We haven't had any sun for three days. I don't think we have been out of the lower 40's for those three days. I have spent some productive time mounting orchids and staghorn ferns, working in the "Everything Else" greenhouse, and have been toasty there.

Unfortunately behind this rain it's gonna be down right chilly ! Hopefully the rain is done and it's not to windy tomorrow Dog Parade is tomorrow and downtown Deland and it's always based on a Mardi Gras theme and usually a hoot. It could be "Hold on to your pooches ! "

indeed!

Yep, lows in the 40's here for 5 days starting tomorrow. Looks like the tender plants are coming into the house again for a while. I'll be covering up the little shelf units outside tomorrow afternoon, as well.

Raining off and on this morning and trying to get some yard work done between showers. Then curling up with a cup of tea and a book because it's supposed to be getting COLD

Absolutely miserable morning here. Rain has let off a bit but it's super dreary cloudy and windy. I was going to go to the Dog Parade downtown, starts at 11:00 I think but I doubt it now. Uggg.

I woke up to clear skies and 30F. It is supposed to get up to around 50 today and sunny for several days.

I've been painting all morning on various projects. Its getting really windy and raining again

Dreary over here on the coast too but I've been fighting for the past few days so it kinda matches my mood.

It rained here last night and it's still gray and windy today with more rain predicted. I'm very happy to see the rain because it's been so dry and we really need it but I don't like the cold temp's. The weather/temp's are taken at the airport which is only about a mile from us but our thermometers always show a couple of degrees warmer than what the reports list as the low for Daytona Beach. With all the manmade waterways in our subdivision we stay a tad warmer which is nice. I really can't complain when I see what folks in the NE are preparing for. It looks like they are in for the first major winter storm of the season ... sure hope everyone up that way stays safe and warm.

According to this mornings newspaper our forecast here in Daytona Beach:

Today 65º/38º winds W @12-25 mph and a 45% chance of rain
Sunday 63º/47º winds W @ 6-12 mph with a 10% chance of rain
Monday 63º/39º winds W @ 12-25mph with a 10% chance of rain

Stay warm and dry everyone ... and lets hope spring arrives early this year!

We have sun now, but it's windy and cooling off. It was muggy during the night with some good hard rain off and on. As you say, Lin, we need the rain but could do without the cold that follows.

However, I am on a moment's notice to hop a plane to Salt Lake City, for arrival of a new grandchild. So if I can just get past this cold blast before I leave, I will be thankful that my plants won't all be dead when I get home. Most of the orchids will just have to tough it out, or will be crammed into our bathroom (has good light and a water supply, the cat sitter will water them for me in there) if cold is predicted while I'm away.


I'm out to wash a car, then pot up a bunch of tomato seedlings that have grown about 6in. in the last week . . . they grow when you don't want them to, and then stop when you do. These are for the school garden so we can't plant them there for another month. I'm hoping the transition out to my garden will slow them up some.

plantladylin said:Dreary over here on the coast too but I've been fighting for the past few days so it kinda matches my mood.
According to this mornings newspaper our forecast here in Daytona Beach:

Today 65º/38º winds W @12-25 mph and a 45% chance of rain
Sunday 63º/47º winds W @ 6-12 mph with a 10% chance of rain
Monday 63º/39º winds W @ 12-25mph with a 10% chance of rain

Stay warm and dry everyone ... and lets hope spring arrives early this year!

And we'll be at least 4-5º colder over here......

Sky is blue, sun is shining and we have the doors and windows open enjoying the fresh air. I thought it was supposed to rain all day but I've been in a bit of a fog ... it is much prettier than it was this morning when all we had was gray and gloom!

Elaine: Lovely orchid! Congratulations on the new grandchild ... will this be your first grand? Babies are such a sweet gift and I envy all who are blessed with grandchildren.

MJ: I just hope we don't have an extremely cold winter. It seems every year I'm holding my breath in January/February in hopes the weather remains mild. I don't like it to get below @45º and only having lows of 50º would be even better! In a few years when my husband retires, our plan is to move south to Sebastian, Fla. My sister and her husband just relocated there from the Fort Lauderdale area; they haven't even sold their house down south yet but purchased a home in Sebastian and made the move last week. They will be getting the house down south ready to put on the market soon and hope for a quick sale. They'd lived in Broward county for 45+ years and I didn't think they'd ever move farther north in the state because they think it's so cold up this way in the winter. My husband and I have even considered purchasing a home down in Sebastian and renting it out until he decides to retire but we have one now that we are trying to sell here ... got tired of being landlords so I don't see that happening again, LOL. We have a tentative contract on the house here that's been sitting empty since our tenants moved out five months ago and it looks encouraging so we're keeping our fingers crossed that the deal goes through and closing will take place in another week or two. That means we need to get over there and clean out the 25' x 25' garage at the back of the property! We did some cleaning before our rental tenants moved in three years ago but there's still a lot of junk that needs to be cleared out and my husband will have to move his motorcycle trailer to a storage place or sell it because HOA regulations prevent us from keeping it.

The big Red Bud tree is already in almost full bloom out front? Just closed the vents on the greenhouse. I hope the wind stays up through the night. That will keep the light frost down that can occur on still nights at 37 degrees...

O wow, my red buds have nary a bud. I did trim some of the lower branches on them last week. The camellias are blooming, but its the worst looking bunch of blooms in a long time. So many buds got frozen off at that early freeze.

Ive got commit crape murder ASAP. They are going to be leafing out soon.

When I was down south this weekend, there was one certain palm that had huge clusters of red fruit hanging from them. Ive lived there all these years and have never noticed them before. There were very cool looking. Any ideas? They looked like date palms that have turned red.

Well, I hope I have saved my daylilies, thanks to alot of rain, and cutting off all the leaves. Time will tell.

Getting my earthboxes set up for veggies. Not going crazy. Tomatoes..peppers...sugar snaps...herbs.

In other words.....Hope springs eternal.

Christmas Palms, most likely (Veitchia merrillii).

Christmas palm, Pam. Christmas Palm (Adonidia merrillii) Around here, the red fruits don't last very long, since the squirrels seem to love them!

It's a fairly small palm and a bit tender to cold. I had them at the end of our driveway until the two cold winters in '09 and '10 when the first winter nearly did them in, and the second one finished the job. But my neighbor has a couple that are protected from the cold a little bit, in between our houses and they survived. So marginally hardy here, but probably not as far north as you are.

Thanks!!! I was really enjoying them. There has been a few 'cold' snaps down there, wonder if that helped make the fruit extra red?? Whatever...I sure will look for them now every time this year. Still stunned I have never noticed them.
Ummmm...Im usually not down there in Jan, as Ive just been in Dec.. Maybe I just miss them every year. Seems when I was growing up, we would have found a myriad of things to do with that fruit.

I would very much like seeing your Earthboxes Pam. They sound interesting.

I am an Earth Box convert, too David. Grow all my veggies in them. They are so very water efficient, and frankly the plants stay healthier and grow faster in them than in my big raised bed (which is all in blueberries and daylilies now).
www.earthbox.com They're so easy and successful, I gave them to my (non-gardener) kids and I plant them each spring in Salt Lake so they just need to make sure the water is getting to them.

I planted this one just after New Years with two purple cauliflower and a fennel plant. The white cover keeps the soil from getting too warm for the cool weather loving veggies. You can reverse it to black for warm lovers. You can see in the second pic I have a micro-tubing water feed in there so once it is planted all I have to do is wait for the harvest.



I have a big tiered plant stand that holds 5 more Earth boxes, although only 3 are planted right now. The top left one was just planted a few days ago so doesn't have its cover on yet. There's a huge frost cloth cover on the roller above it so all the tender plants get moved under it for cold nights, and it's easy to unroll, then roll up when the sun warms things up again. Peppers are nearly there, and broccoli is ready to harvest, I ate the first head last week!

Pretend those are my pictures

Mine are either empty right now, or just have seedling nubs in them, so yours is a much better representation. I just ordered a bunch of new covers and 3 new boxes. Some people make their own, I just would never get them done and these work for me. This will be the first year in 5, that I put veggies back in some. I found they did wonders for my daylily seedlings. I also like the weed control. I get really tired of weeding my pots. Im gunna have to check out your watering system. I do get a little tired of filling them.