Sandy. I am confused. Your info says UP but you are saying you are in lower Michigan. Which is it? We know the UP is cold cold and I thought your daily observations were from there.

We are still showing mid 20's at night. But them up to the 70's during the day, at least in the sun. squill, crocus are blooming and daffodils are poking through the soil.

LOL, Mary -- sorry for the confusion; I'm in the "southern UP" (near the top of L. Michigan), as opposed to the "northern UP", up by L. Superior. It's only a distance of about 60 miles but quite a difference in the weather that we have as compared to, say, Marquette, Houghton, Copper Harbor. Because of the crazy Great Lakes weather patterns the northern part of the lower peninsula often gets more snow than we do here in what locals often refer to as "the banana belt of the UP."

I'm about where the red star on the map is, just south of Escanaba and directly west of the Straits of Mackinac (between the 2 peninsulas).

Ahhhh. got it. It is so nostalgic to hear all those names. Escanaba, Hougton, Mackinac. First husband was born in West Branch and grew up at Houghton Lake. I lived there through one winter, Houghton Lake that is. And spent a summer in Clare.

Our spring has been more like winter than winter was. This weekend however it's been wonderfully sunny and warm (20C or 69F) and I was able to BBQ yesterday. I haven't been well enough to work outside but my dear husband in the last couple of weeks has already cleaned up all but the gardens to the north of the house, and has even done some raking and brought out the hoses. I just hope he hasn't done things too early. I've got 8 flats of plants started under my grow lights in the basement and am anxiously awaiting my husband and his friend to finish the tiny greenhouse they put together for me last fall. They have to come up with a pulley system to open the windows on either side and put in shelves on each side. I also have a couple of large pots downstairs. One has one of my elephant ears. The new one I purchased last year didn't survive the winter even in the basement. One pot has sweet peas started to cover part of an ugly chain link fence in the backyard. The third has a mystery plant. I remember thinking I'd try to save something but for the life of me can't remember what it was and didn't label it, lol.

Under the grow lights - Nasturtiums, Balsam, Cherry Tomatoes, Beefsteak Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Zinnias, Laveteria, and Cosmos.





It looks like the 100 or so plants I dug up from the garden last fall and potted for a spring sale seem to have survived the winter. I potted them and then planted the pots right in the garden for the winter. Now to decide when to have the sale. More and more people are having sales and I haven't done too well the last few years. I have to check and see when others are advertised and try and find a different date. It will most likely be the weekend before the long weekend in May as it's nuts to plant before the long weekend here as there is always a chance of frost up to then and sometimes, even after. My plants will have been outside the whole time so won't need hardening off. My husband has been making noises of holding a small garage sale at the same time - not necessarily a good thing. People who garage sale will want the plants for 50 cents or a dollar. I sell them cheaply but not that cheaply, lol. I need to clean out my painting studio as well and may try and sell some of my paintings and some of the surfaces I've purchased to paint on but never did. Unfortunately they sell for next to nothing - sometimes less than the painting surface cost.

By 'painting surface' do you mean canvas on splints or is there some pretreatment to the canvas before the real painting. Can you post one or two of your pictures. Would love to see them. Your little greenhouse, if that is the little building your husband (?) is standing next to looks pretty fancy. Your weather is very similar to ours sounds like. Frustrating when it is so lovely during the day and then down below freezing at night.

I think it is better to advertise a Plant Sale only, and not try to combine it with any other sales. That way you attract gardeners only, and they will appreciate the value of your plants. I would also specify the prices in any advertising. Just my thoughts.

Finished all my spring clean up on Friday. Then went to the city for a shopping spree on Saturday, including buying my first perennial additions of the year (a big coral bells, a red peony and a golden yellow barberry) and come home in the rain. The rain I was happy about, but not the snow that started after we got home! Now there's an inch of snow on the ground covering all my new shoots that I just uncovered this week, including lots of peony shoots! Do you think the peonies will survive this?

Oh yuck - not the "S" word!

I grew peonies years ago and I "think" yours will be fine, Connie; maybe someone else has more info about that, though.

We are barely above freezing down here this morning.
I think the peony shoots can sustain a slight freeze.
I also have plants out there that are not in the ground yet.
They are up near the house,--- so I hope they make it through this cold spell.

Connie, peony's are pretty tough, they should be fine.

Cloudy, cool and windy here today, may get rain this afternoon.

I hope so, Margaret. 😐 I have a lot of them and they are one of my favourites for sure; and it's been snowing most of today. 😤 At least the temperature hasn't dropped below freezing.

At least the snow will help protect them from the cold if the temperature does drop.

It is always below freezing at night here and while my plants (peonies) are just pips they are doing fine.

We had plenty of rain this morning everything is really growing. My Amelanchier × grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance' serviceberry tree is blooming. The tulips are so beautiful this year and have increased nicely. The rain is making the magnolia blooms fall apart the grass is carpeted in pink. I will have to cut the lawn soon, my neighbor already cut theirs.
Although we live in the north you folks in Canada and Alaska most certainly are still having winter, hope it warms up for you soon.

Margaret is correct that peonies are though plants, some here are more than 65 years old, they came from my parents farm.

Oh, we definitely are well into spring. According to my thermometers it gets as high as 70 during the day in the sun (not counting any slight breeze) and has held above freezing at night for two whole days. I dug up a peony that I had planted in a really bad spot four years or so ago. Didn't see any buds but holy cow. The root mass was full of them. I broke/cut it into 7 plants each with 1 to 5 eyes. They are in pots in front of the garage. Not sure what I am going to do with them as I hardly have room for what I have much less what I have coming this fall. Guess the botanical garden will have some for their plant sale end of May. Chickweed going great.

Too wet for gardening today, it rained yesterday afternoon and evening, everything is looking nice and green, today is partly cloudy with a 20% chance of precip. The grass is getting nice and green, the perennials are all looking great, Hostas are coming up, and the daylilies are ahead of schedule for this time of year.

Same here rained some more last night and this morning, plus we are suppose to have more this week. I noticed some of my hostas are also coming up, will wait until it dries up some before I check the others. not feeling like walking around in wet grass.

We have a guy coming to replace the front fence on Thursday so I sure hope the lawn dries up by then or it will be a real mess.

CarolineScott said:I think it is better to advertise a Plant Sale only, and not try to combine it with any other sales. That way you attract gardeners only, and they will appreciate the value of your plants. I would also specify the prices in any advertising. Just my thoughts.

CAROLINE - I posted 2 separate ads - one for gardening and one for my artwork but I did put a single line in each about the other. Also, I included prices for the various types of plants I will be selling. Thanks for the advice though. Lin

Oberon46 said:By 'painting surface' do you mean canvas on splints or is there some pretreatment to the canvas before the real painting. Can you post one or two of your pictures. Would love to see them. Your little greenhouse, if that is the little building your husband (?) is standing next to looks pretty fancy. Your weather is very similar to ours sounds like. Frustrating when it is so lovely during the day and then down below freezing at night.

By painting surface, I mean tinworks (small milk jugs, pails, vases, watering cans), wood pieces (seasonal cutouts [santas, pumpkins, etc.], a rooster, trays, plates, etc.), ceramics/glass (vases, plant pots, wine glasses, mugs, plates, etc.), metal (candle plates, trays, etc.). I plan to keep all my canvases stretched over wood. Here are some pics of my paintings:

some of the garden statuettes I painted once the all white looked tired and worn
Chickadees on a decorative cutting board
Deer and Elk on a metal X-mas tree
cat and bird on a large milk can (about 8 birds and 6 cats altogether around surface)
Fall farm scene (from my imagination)
Stepfather in law's cottage
Sister's 2 dogs
our cat (she's gone now)
watering can

The greenhouse is very tiny - 4' deep by 5' wide inside. I don't think our weather is as similar as you think - at least not what I know of Alaska. We should be in spring but as you will see from my next post, it snowed today and then we had freezing rain! We should be into spring but sometimes you wonder. We can usually plant 24th of May weekend (Canadian holiday on the Monday closest to the 24th - celebrated as the Queen's Birthday) but not always. I plan to have my sale the weekend before as the nurseries already have some perennials out and spring flowers like pansies. We are supposed to get warmer weather next week about 16C with lows of about 5C (60F and 40F) still too cold to use the greenhouse without running a cord out and a heater. We start losing things to the cold around the end of Aug/mid Sept.